


they speak of gold on the twilight hour

by galta (yujael)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Loz: Breath of the Wild fusion, M/M, Treasure Hunting, they're hunting for treasure in Hyrule, zelda knowledge isnt really necessary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-01 17:44:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 35,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11491437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujael/pseuds/galta
Summary: Jesse McCree has spent most of his life hunting for treasure and chasing the whispers of a legendary series of labyrinths with unknown riches. When he finally has the chance to prove that the legends exist he nearly meets his end - but an archer with the means of slaying out of control Guardians saves his life. He and Hanzo strike a deal that day: they'll work together and venture into places other hunters won't go near because of the dangerous Guardians and share the rewards.And maybe, somehow, they'll find a way to make history and track down the rest of the ancient labyrinths along the way.





	1. the labyrinth in the south

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to a Zelda fusion that came to me all at once while I was playing Zelda, also known as 'Maybe the Real Treasure was the Partner We Found Along the Way.' You don't have to know much about Breath of the Wild, though, don't worry. This would all take place before Link wakes up at the beginning. I have three parts of this planned, matching up with all three of the labyrinths you can find in game, and they're all looking to be a little lengthy, but that's okay. Aesthetic, you know. 
> 
> Enjoy, and please tell me what you think!

It starts on a warm evening, the sun hanging low over the only oasis between the Gerudo Canyon and the Gerudo settlement deep in the desert. The Kara Kara Bazaar is lit with dimming gold and the air is still filled with traders and travelers calling even at this hour. Most travelers are taking advantage of the cooling temperature to finally do most of their business since during the day the air is almost too hot and dusty for most.

Jesse himself is used to the desert, but after spending a few days on the road even he'd decided to wait out the usual heat at the stable beyond the desert gateway. The sun's nearly set by the time he arrives and shakes as much sand as he can from his boots and armor before stepping into the inn. He gives the innkeeper a quick tip of his hat, but he's not looking for a bed just yet. Instead, he passes the counter and heads through to the back, where there are a few creaky wooden tables spread out near a quiet bar. There are only a couple people sitting there, and only a few more at the tables, and even though that's a bit of a rare sight in Jesse's experience it also makes it easier to spot the man sitting in the farthest corner with two drinks in front of him.

The man looks up almost as soon as Jesse spots him, probably responding to Jesse's heavy footsteps on the stone floor, and grins. "Took you long enough, white hat," he calls, holding on of the drinks up and sliding it over the spot across the table from him. "You know how many times I've had to sit here ordering two drinks for myself just in case you decided to show up?"

Jesse chuckles as he drops down on a creaky stool and takes the drink. Whiskey and half-melted ice. Not too bad, all considered. "If I knew you were up for spending money on me I'd have been here sooner. Gotta be careful getting through the canyon these days, figured I'd leave dealing with the heat for another day. When did you get here, anyway? Haven't seen you since the woods in Faron."

Gabriel Reyes leans against the wall behind him and shrugs. "Only about four days, give or take. I only had a couple guesses to where you might have gone so I left notes at about three different stables."

"I found them all, too," Jesse says. They share a grin. "Good to see an old man's still getting around."

Gabriel kicks him under the table. "This old man's been in the game a hell of a lot longer than you, show some respect."

"Given where it's due," Jesse says, chuckling into his mug. He can't lean back on his stool but he settles for propping his feet up on another and leaning sideways against the edge of the table. "What are we out here for, anyway? Not every day I see you gracious enough to let me in on anything good."

"Got one word for you, cowboy," Gabriel says quietly, lips stretching in a smile before he's even finished. "Lomei."

_Lomei_. Jesse's heard it a few times before. Anyone who calls themselves a treasure hunter has. It's a legend carried on the wind, whispered from the desert all the way through to old Mount Lanayru for thousands of years. Nowadays only scraps of the tale remain, but it enough to keep a lot of people going. Lots of hunters get up in the morning thinking that one day they'll come across even the slightest clue as to where one of the legendary labyrinths supposedly built millennia ago to house untold treasures lie.

A small mention of it is enough to make Jesse's pulse pick up, and the low murmur of the other travelers around them turns to little more than white noise as he pulls his feet away from their resting spot to lean even closer. "You saying you got something on it?"

"Might be that I do," Gabriel says. "I've been past the canyon for a while now, and I'm not the only one. All the sandstorms recently are kicking up a lot of things, especially around those ruins out west. You can head out there if you want, but I got something better. Word of mouth, mostly, but a lead's a lead."

Jesse squints at him, confused. "If you figured something out why have you just been sitting here on your ass waiting for me?"

Gabriel whacks the side of Jesse's head. "Ingrate."

"Hey now! It's a legitimate question! What'd you hear? From who?"

"There are ruins out east too, you know?" Gabriel asks, waving in the general direction of east. "But the storms are worse over there. Not a lot of traffic."

Jesse nods. He could see the constant sandstorm the moment he stepped into the desert. It blots out half the sky almost constantly, shifting steadily as a great ancient beast kicking it all up prowls the desert around Gerudo Town.  The Divine Beast -- not so divine in recent days in his opinion -- had been mostly hidden under the dunes for as long as Jesse could remember up until a few weeks ago. Since then, access to the eastern reaches of the desert has been trickier. Not impossible, though.

"I've heard of a few guys going out there anyway, thinkin' they got an advantage seeing as hardly anyone else wants to go. One of them came back around last week, beat to hell and back by a surprise storm and a pack of lizalfos, but still going on about something he found around the heroines -- an old riddle uncovered with some of the ruins."

"Riddles. Didn't see that one coming," Jesse comments dryly. Gabriel snorts. "What was it about?"

Gabriel shrugs. "Kid didn't know half of it, the dialect it was in is dead. The only reason we figured anything out is because he went around asking everyone and their second aunt if they knew the language."

"How many people know about this?" Jesse asks, glancing around.

"A bunch. If it'd been me I'd have at least kept it quiet, but now there's all kinds of rumors. Surprised you didn't hear any on the way in. Let me finish though. I know two things." Gabriel holds a finger up. "One, a trial of memory. Which in my experience can mean a lot of things, but we're a bunch of hopeful bastards, aren't we? So let's assume it refers to some kind of maze, a place you need some way of remembering your tracks in." He holds up a second finger. "And then, a couple of lines talking about how the second sister keeps watch over the champion's gate."

"Sister as in heroine?" Jesse asks. "Seeing as we really are a bunch of hopeful bastards digging in the sand out here."

"Right. And there are seven statues out there, remember?"

"It's been a long while since I've heard of anything worth looking for over in that direction, but yeah, that hasn't changed since I last checked."

"If one of those statues really is pointing the way to the labyrinth it's more than worth a look, don't you think?"

Jesse has no idea what the legendary labyrinth would actually look like, but the thought of this half translated riddle actually being correct and leading somewhere true is enough to set his heart racing a little again. It's like he's a kid again, hearing the story for the first time from an old hunter passing through his home.

"It'd be more than worth it if we hit the labyrinth," he agrees. "I don't suppose you've narrowed down any kind of location since you've been sitting here so long?"

"I did as much as I could given what I had." Gabriel stares at what's left of his drink with a thoughtful expression before continuing. "The statues are in a circle, so which one is the second one being referred to? I could go northwest, check out the highlands."

"Mighty dangerous up there."

Gabriel nods. "Wouldn't be the first time either of us tried something stupid for bragging rights, though, would it?"

Jesse's laugh draws some attention from the surrounding patrons, but not for too long. "Certainly not. But go on."

"Or I could go southeast. The only thing I've heard of in the barrens are storms, but maybe we've never heard of anything good out there because it's buried every time we try looking."

"There's some kind of gateway, either way, isn't there?"

"If the riddle is right, yeah."

"Well, it's something we didn't have before." Jesse tilts the brim of his hat back to look Gabriel in the eye clearly. "So why bring me out here? You said it yourself, you've been in the game longer and you'd have kept your mouth shut if you'd found the riddle.  Lomei's labyrinths are as big as it gets with a crowd like ours, and you're risking a shot at the glory?"

Gabriel chuckles quietly. "Lots of people know about the riddle now, the risk was there before you showed up to the party. And who says I'm afraid of losing a bet to a punk like you?"

"A bet? Now I'm interested."

"Ha! As if you weren't the second I said Lomei. But yeah, a bet. We got two possibilities, seeing as there was no specification on whether it's the second statue from the right or left pointing the way. And when I thought about that, I thought that I could spend the next few weeks checking out both places, or we could have some fun. You're right, Lomei's big. And don't go spreading it around, but you might not be that scrawny kid who tried taking a haul out from under me anymore, but you're still one of the only other hunters I'm not inclined to shoot in the knee. Figured if there was anything to have a go at, we could have a little wager and see who actually gets it."

Jesse snorts. "First of all, I didn't just try, I think even you'll recall I succeeded. That was my haul and you know it. Secondly..."

Lomei. Could some rookie really have found the one clue they needed to find one of the labyrinths? Part of him doesn't believe it, doesn't believe that some green hunter found what others never saw. At best they could have a lead to something certainly worth the trouble of having sand in absolutely everything he owns.

But at the same time, Jesse remembers being that hunter. Just a scrawny kid on the road looking for even the slightest hint of something that would make him rich. Some hopeful idiot going to bed thinking about the ancient mazes filled with treasure just waiting for someone to discover them.

"You in or not?" Gabriel prompts, leaning close again.

Jesse grins. "What, we get the first hint that anyone's found in ages and you think I'm just gonna walk out? I'm in. Just tell me which way you're goin' and I'll head the other way."

They go through another round of drinks before Gabriel makes a decision.  Unafraid of the dangers that lie in the snow and ice to the north, he decides to take on the highlands, leaving Jesse to search the East Barrens for some kind of gateway to lead him, just maybe, to riches that no one's seen in centuries.

"It'll be a good game," Gabriel says just before they part way for the night. "We head out tomorrow morning and the first one back here with proof wins. Treasure, bragging rights, whatever you want. Gotta get back here with something though."

"Deal," Jesse says, grasping Gabriel's outstretched hand for a firm - almost crushing - shake. Twilight is fully on them and the temperature is cooling rapidly by the time they finally get into a bed, and Jesse can feel the anticipation in his bones even as he falls asleep.

\--

The sun isn't even peaking over the horizon when they both leave the inn, as prepared for their respective journeys as they can be. Jesse keeps his white hat and light armor while Gabriel carries with him the supplies he'll need once he reaches the highlands.

"Hey, before you go out there," Gabriel says, clasping a hand on Jesse's shoulder. "I know you're gonna try pulling off some dumb shit if you find anything good because I would too. But don't try something that's gonna get you killed." He nods sharply at the ever present storm in the distance. Not quite in Jesse's path now, but always ready to move in nonetheless. "Not much of a game if you end up dead."

"Could say the same for you," Jesse says, nodding. "Don't freeze to death up there. And don't worry about me. I plan on sticking as close to the canyon as I can manage for as long as I can. After that, we'll see what's there to see."

Gabriel slaps him on the back a couple times and then turns around and starts his trek to the northern cliffs, calling over his shoulder, "Good luck, kid."

"All the same for you, old man," Jesse replies. Gabriel waves once and keeps going. Jesse adjusts his hat and the heads out himself.

A couple hours later, the heat is rising quickly as the sun rises over the valley walls in the east, but Jesse isn't too concerned about it yet as he stands in the vast shadows of the seven stone Gerudo heroines. They're almost a complete circle and as he stands in the empty space remaining he follows the direction of two of the statues' arms as far as he can. The second on his right points back the way he came, towards Gabriel, as if watching those cliffs far in the north. On his left, another statue stares off toward a tall pillar of stone in the southwest. There's nothing more they can tell him, but it never hurts to be sure.

He doesn't stay long with them. The canyon is only going to give him good shade for so long and a sharp turn in the wind tells him he doesn't have long before he'll have other desert problems to deal with.

There's a tremor in the earth all around him, even in all the sand. It's a near constant _thump-thump, thump-thump_ as the Divine Beast marches through the desert. It doesn't face him - as far as he can tell, anyway, since he can only just see the top of its head every once and awhile - for which he's very thankful, but the effects of its travel still reach him at the desert's edge. At first, he couldn't stop the tension rising in his joints with every earth-shaking step, but now, with the wind blowing towards him, he finds himself more concerned with keeping track of the sneaky lizalfos swimming in the sand as the area becomes less and less visible.

The monsters hunt even in storms and can be hard to spot even on a clear day, and they seem to enjoy storms caused by the Beast even more. Every time he sees a glimpse of a sparking horn - which is often - he stops, hoping they pass him by. It doesn't always work, and despite the fact that he's no shaking leaf in the midst of battle the lizardfolk are quicker than he'll ever be and every hour he spends trudging along the canyon wall earns him a couple more scratches on his armor and a little more blood on his blade.

_ Thump-thump. _

For a little while, it feels as though the shaking is worse. The storm certainly blows harder, forcing him at one point to hold onto the canyon wall with one hand while the other holds a cloth over his face to shield it from the burning sand.

_ Thump-thump. _

But then it fades. The Divine Beast wanders somewhere else, choosing to bring it's trouble back around to Gerudo Town, and eventually, Jesse can barely feel its steps. He knows it's somewhere around midday by then, and the sun is far too high for the canyon to give him any more shade, but when he finally steps away he has to pause and take a good look at his surroundings.

He doesn't need to have really seen them to know them - the East Barrens are, well, incredibly barren. Great pillars and crumbling ruins dot the landscape almost everywhere else in the Gerudo Desert, but the expanse before him looks so empty that it doesn't even appear to have much for sand dunes. It's one of the most unforgiving looking places he's ever seen, especially with the sun hanging directly above. If he knew of an oasis anywhere in that direction he'd feel more inclined to tackle it, but for now…

There's a break in the canyon some ways ahead. During the storm it was practically invisible; only by continuing to walk along the base of the cliff would he have found it then, but as the sand settles he's more and more curious.

_ The second sister keeps watch… _

The map he has drops off as the edge of the barrens. Nothing worth noting, nothing worth braving the empty desert to draw. He doesn't know if he's looking at a simple inlet in a sand sea, or…

_ The champion's gate… _

There's only one thing he can do.

_ "Lomei's labyrinth. Built ages ago by a master architect. If you can find it, and if you can find your way through the maze, it could be yours..." _

The canyon walls on both sides form a road that rises gently from the sand. Large boulders litter the ground, fallen from high above and left over time to build up more obstacles, but compared to the challenges of making his way through deep sand in a storm, getting around the boulders and up the hill is easy. He can't see far ahead - the path curves again and there are outcroppings obscuring a good amount of the way as well - but he can feel his heart picking up again.

This isn't mapped as far as he knows. The desert here is too empty, too uninteresting. Once, if there was anything out there people knew of it, but after the Calamity hit…

He stops briefly to eat before going in, knowing that if he doesn't then his own curiosity and excitement will make him forget later on. Then he begins picking his way through carefully, climbing over and around the old blockages where he can. He avoids crawling under if he can - he can hear the soft scratching and shifting of lizalfos hiding just out of sight, waiting for him, or anything else living for that matter, to pass close enough to them. He's none too keen on fighting actual uphill battles. The path becomes narrower and narrower as he goes, making him wonder how far he could make it up the steep cliffs. Not far, probably. He's more than used to climbing in his so-called line of work, but not that much.

He also wonders, in the back of his head, if he's simply putting too much hope in a dead end.

But then the walls open up again, the path becoming much wider after he manages to scrape through a gap between a few precarious looking boulders. It's still hot as ever, but being able to breathe properly again is a relief - although that thought is cut short when Jesse glances up and sees the large stone formation before him. More outcroppings break away from the cliffs, but the more Jesse looks at them, the more they resemble and arch. Not one made by man, certainly, but still something that reminds him of the great archway that leads travelers into the Gerudo Desert.

A gateway, even.

The ground starts to drop again on the other side of the arch. The canyon curves again, so he can't tell how far down it goes, but somehow the road ahead is mostly clear of the heavy damage behind him. It looks like an easy stroll downhill.

Something, there's got to be _something-_

Caught in his excitement as he passes under the arch and heads further down, Jesse almost misses the deep scraping sound from behind him, and only when he stops does he notice the faint tremor under his boots.

Jesse has seen Guardians before. They dot the landscape no matter where he goes, an ugly reminder of the destruction 100 years ago, an even uglier one yet of the destruction that continues even now.  Most he comes across are dead, half buried and overtaken by nature.

This one is not.

It's a huge dusty thing with tarnished legs, one of which is missing entirely, but it's very much up and running well enough to scuttle down from the top of the canyon, closer and closer and -

Moving back to the archway brings him closer to it, but all Jesse can think about is getting away, getting out of sight, _out of sight-_

The beam misses him, landing somewhere behind him, and the resulting explosion is enough to throw Jesse to the ground and knock the breath from his lungs. He lands under the arch, but he knows it's only going to give him a few seconds of time. This thing can move, and it knows where he went - and it won't take long for it to figure out how to get down from on top of the arch. His mind is racing and he can hardly even get enough breath to calm it - he's never taken down a Guardian before, doesn't even know if there's a way that he can, but if he just runs there's no telling if it'll be fooled by the debris around him.

The Guardian makes the decision for him.

It drops down, landing with a heavy thump and completely dashes any hope of Jesse turning back the way he came to hide and maybe even wait it out. The sickly purple glow of its armor practically burns in Jesse's eye and it doesn't even bother coming any closer as the glowing blue eye stares him down, growing brighter and brighter every second -

_ "Not much of a game if you end up dead." _

If Jesse had any breath left he'd give a quick apology. With nowhere else to hide it's all out of his hands now.

Blue light gathers around the eye -

\- and then something strikes it, cutting off the high pitched beep that it only just started emitting, and Jesse can't cover his own eyes fast enough before an explosion of blue-white light overtakes the entire machine. He feels the explosion, even if he isn't burned. There's an awful sound, like metal grinding against metal against more metal, and the ground shakes once - and then it's quiet. Jesse can't hear anything but the ringing in his ears, can't see anything but the white light, can't feel anything except the heat of the explosion - but he's... alive?

Rubbing his eyes does little to help the spots obscuring most of his sight, but when he can finally see what's left of the Guardian in front of him all he finds is a dark, smoking shell. There's no light in it at all and the eye is completely shattered. Jesse squints, but the spots still remain, and it's when he tries to rub them away again that something else lands in front of him.

No, someone. There is a man between him and the Guardian, approaching the seemingly dead Guardian carefully, holding a bow and a loosely nocked arrow.

It was an arrow, Jesse thinks. But wait, just an arrow? There's no way…

The ringing and the spots have faded somewhat by the time the archer is satisfied with the current state of the Guardian. He slings the bow across his back, drops the arrow into his quiver, and turns to look at Jesse with an expression of what Jesse thinks might be inquisitiveness.

"You are unharmed?" The man asks. He sounds breathless, even through the ringing in Jesse's ears. His eyes are sharp and alert, and he's not even half as dirty and sandy as Jesse is. He's also very sweaty, like he'd been exerting himself in this place even more than Jesse had been.

But he did just take down a Guardian single-handedly, after all.

Jesse finally finds his breath and gets to his feet, willing his legs to be steady after his brush with death. "Shit, yeah, I'm fine, I'm - you jumped in just in time, you - hold on a moment, would you because by Hylia I don't usually come that close to one of those things and I just need a second to catch my breath."

The archer nods once and then turns around again as Jesse takes as deep a breath as he can manage. His hat's gone, but he sees it only a few feet away. Dusty and a tad singed, but otherwise alright. He puts it back on, feeling much better with the small amount of shade it offers his cheeks, and looks at the archer again. He's leaning close to the Guardian, inspecting it for something.

"You saved my life just now," Jesse says. The archer pauses only briefly. "Thanks for that."

"Think nothing of it," the archer replies. He presses his fingers against the dull shell of the Guardian but then draws them back almost immediately, shaking them at his side for a couple seconds before facing Jesse again. "I did not think I'd see anyone else this far beyond the plateau."

The same thing occurs to Jesse, and despite the last few moments, he feels his shoulders tense. Is this man looking for the labyrinth as well? How did he even get here, though? His armor is white, too, but he's wearing very little to actually protect himself from the harsh environment of the desert, especially the storms. If he has anything other than the white hood draped over his head then it must be stowed away somewhere.

"Neither did I," Jesse says. "But I guess if you hadn't been here, well, I wouldn't be now. Mind if I ask what brought you out here?"

"I'd ask the same, but it doesn't matter." The archer shrugs. "I was hunting this," he says, kicking the Guardian behind him with his heel. "There was nowhere suitable enough to deal with it on the mesa so I drove it here." He pauses, looking Jesse up and down. "My apologies, I suppose."

"You made up for that by killing it, I think." Jesse chuckles quietly. "Wait, the mesa?" He glances up, squinting through the midday light. "You were climbing around up there?"

The man nods, somehow keeping his chin held high the whole time. "Yes, to find this."

Part of him wants to know why the archer was intentionally going after a Guardian, but the rest doesn't really want to know. He's mostly just relieved that he's alive and apparently still alone in his search for the labyrinth.

After a few seconds of silence, the archer returns to the Guardian and touches it again. And then Jesse watches as he pulls out what looks like a short stick that glows orange faintly and flicks it - and suddenly it's a blade that glows with the same strange white-blue light that had overtaken the Guardian. The archer drives it into the shell and carves a chunk of it away as if it weren't made of an ancient, super resilient material.

"You can continue on your way," the archer calls over the sound of him hacking and sawing away. "I would be wary, though. This isn't the only Guardian in the area."

All things considered, it's as good of a dismissal as any. It looks like the archer is going to be here for some time, picking apart this Guardian. For what reason, Jesse can only guess.

He tips his hat mostly out of habit. "I'll do that. Thanks again, and uh, good luck, I guess."

The man's only response is a wave over his shoulder. He looks to be too busy now with peering into the shell of the Guardian to bother anymore with Jesse.

It feels a little awkward to leave. Jesse can't help but look over his shoulder once or twice before he rounds another corner and falls out of sight. On the road - an actual road - finding himself or another traveler in a spot of trouble and dealing with it together for both their sakes isn't uncommon. Happens a lot these days.

The same kind of scene in this lonely corner of the desert is practically otherworldly.

Just like before, though, they're only strangers on the road. He takes a drink of water and goes. Eventually, the sound of the archer sawing and prying the Guardian apart fade into the valley behind him.

The valley floor continues to dip lower and lower as he goes, and he even manages to find good shade as it curves around. He considers stopping for a rest now that the sun is off his back, but a strong voice in his mind shakes that off. He's come pretty far already, and regardless of why the archer is nearby it still means Jesse isn't completely alone. If there's something to find at the end of this winding path he'll rest after he finds it.

Only a few minutes later, he's glad he listened to that voice. The bottom of the hill happens to be just around the corner, where the path seems to open up into a field, and cutting across it is a long shadow with edges far too straight to be part of the mesa he's been trekking through.

He's looking at the ground when he comes fully around the corner, too busy with trying to keep his footing on the final steep drop to see immediately that's in front of him. The first thing he sees when he looks up is a wall. Rising up dozens of feet tall - but still coming up a tad short of the immense height of the canyon - and decorated with swirling designs along the base, the wall stretches on for hundreds of feet in one direction while another at the corner runs maybe only half the distance. A giant stone structure with, as far as Jesse can see, only one way in.

He takes two steps towards it, mind blank as he marvels at the sheer size of the structure before he remembers why he came here.

Lomei's labyrinth.

His mind is blank again, and there's a rushing in his ears. All this time -

He thinks of Gabriel up in the north - probably not even in the highlands proper yet - and a laugh blows out of him in a gasp.

"The second sister from the left," Jesse says to himself as he takes another step forward. "Oh, sorry, old man. I think I win this one."

He doesn't get very far before he sees movement from the top of the wall - a series of flickering blue lights and bright purple - and he freezes again, heart pounding now for a completely different reason. Another Guardian, propellers whirring away to hold it high above him as it scans the area inside the wall.

"Oh damn, you weren't kidding," he groans as he scrambles backward reflexively. He watches the Guardian pass back and forth over the entrance for a couple minutes, unsure if he should try his luck sneaking by it or maybe even turn around - surely the archer is still there and willing to kill another Guardian, if he was willing to go all over hell's half acre for one with a missing leg. Could it also be possible to wait this one out?

He looks up, searching for the sun in the sky, and that's when he sees the figure high on the cliff. Crouched low on a tiny landing a few feet from the top of the cliff, only visible because his white armor catches Jesse's eye, is the archer. How the hell…? The archer doesn't look back, his attention wholly on the Guardian as it comes around for yet another pass over the entrance.

"There's no way you can make that shot," Jesse murmurs to himself, eyes flicking back and forth between the patroller and the archer. He doesn't move though. He and the archer are still as statues for what feels like hours.

The archer draws his bow and pulls an arrow back. Jesse blinks and almost misses the flicker of light - the arrow must be glowing, too. It must have been able to cut through the Guardian just like the knife.

Who is this man?

Jesse holds his breath as the archer waits again. Seconds pass and then the arrow flies. Jesse tracks its glowing trail until it makes contact with the Guardian - and then, just like before, the Guardian is engulfed in blue light. When it fades, the purple light is nothing more than a flicker. When that goes out the Guardian veers away and falls from the sky, and Jesse can hear it crashing loudly all the way to the ground.

Jesse gawks up at the archer, who waits on his perch for another few seconds before putting his bow away again and climbing down the cliff quicker and more nimble than Jesse's ever seen before. He doesn't seem to notice Jesse until they meet at the bottom.

"You're pretty handy with that bow," Jesse says.

"I know," the man replies simply. If he's surprised to see Jesse again he doesn't show it. Not that there were many places for Jesse to go. He eyes the wide entrance of the structure with pursed lips then turns to Jesse. "Did you know about this maze?"

"I hoped more than I knew," Jesse breathes with barely contained giddiness. He approaches the gate, close enough to feel dwarfed by the walls even from a distance but not close enough to see much else other than a single long corridor inside. "That's really what it is, right? A labyrinth?"

"It looked that way from the cliff," the archer says, a small distance behind now. "I was hoping that the Guardian would land out here, though…"

"You're not interested in what might be in there?" Jesse asks, looking over his shoulder. Not a treasure hunter, he thinks. Most of the other hunters he's met wouldn't think twice about whacking him upside the head while his back was turned to get a head start.

The archer considers it for a few seconds, eyes passing up and down the walls. He sighs and gives Jesse just a passing look as he walks forward. "No. Do what you want here, I'm looking for that Guardian."

Jesse lets him pass, unsure of what he could say otherwise. Good luck? See you later even though we'll be walking in the same direction and running into each other again? The man stops and looks around on the other side of the gate and that gives Jesse time to catch up.

"Hey, wait. Why don't we stick together and have a look around? I still owe you for saving my ass back there, I'd like to lend a hand in return."

"It's not necessary, I know where it landed, more or less, and I'll be on my way after I find it. You don't have to worry about me stealing any treasure from under your nose."

"Caught on all accounts, aren't I? I'm serious, though. Might not be the same in your eyes, but I don't much like being indebted to people for long."

Sympathy passes over the man's face. "Fine, then, just as long as you have a good memory."

"It's not too bad if I do say so myself," Jesse says, grinning. "I've been looking for this place for a long time, too, so I don't intend on going in just to get lost."

"We'll see," the man hums. He considers the crossroad in front of them again and then turns right. He takes about four steps before stopping once more. "I do not know your name."

"Jesse McCree," Jesse answers with a tip of his hat. "Can I call you something other than archer?"

"Hanzo."

Jesse repeats it in his mind as they set off down the corridor. His name is Hanzo, he has some damn good aim, and they turned right first.

"Mind if I ask why you're after Guardians?" Jesse asks as they turn the corner at the end - _left_ \- and continue down another that seems to span the entire length of the labyrinth. "Most people tend to keep their heads down around them. Although it is nice knowing there are a couple less hanging around."

"Their parts are useful," Hanzo replies. "If they're still intact, that is. Some pieces are valuable. I'm collecting them."

His own kind of treasure hunter, then.

There's only one branch from this path. Hanzo pauses when they reach it and glances up at the top of the walls. "I couldn't see every path from the cliff, but it landed somewhere on this side. This way."

Another left, and they're in a tunnel. It's slightly cooler, but Jesse feels uneasy as soon as they go in. He can't say why until the path forks again immediately. They really only have one choice - the other path is blocked by a thick, black goo that covers both the walls and the ground almost all the way through. It glows slightly in the same ugly purple as the Guardians and when he listens closely he can just make out a constant low groaning sound under the bubbling.

"Malice," Hanzo says, disgust dripping from every syllable. Jesse's heard a few different names for the stuff, but malice is as good a word as any to describe any part of its existence.

"Won't be going that way anytime soon," Jesse says, sneaking by it.

"No, we should keep away from it. There should be able to get around it, though."

Ahead, there is another fork before the path continues around a corner. They pause there and Jesse considers their choices. Turning right would take him deeper in, and his gut tells him there's a better chance of finding something in there, Guardian or no.

"Why don't you head straight, see what's around that corner? I'll look around in here, and then we'll come back here."

Hanzo nods as if he already knows the explanation for Jesse's idea and keeps walking.

It's much more maze-like around this corner, Jesse thinks as he is immediately presented with several different options. Right and left both branch off multiple times, probably into dead ends, maybe into treasure.

He heads right first and only gets led right back to where he started. When he heads left he almost thinks it's an exact mirror of the other side until he finds another fork. Somewhere to the left, he can hear more bubbling black goo and wonders if Hanzo has run into that, too. To the right, though…

Sitting in the dead end is a small, dirty, ancient looking chest. Jesse grins, the Malice momentarily forgotten.

"Oh, I'll be bringing back proof alright."

There's a spike of disappointment when all he finds is a collection of old equipment, far too old and neglected to be of any use now, even if they look to have been fine weapons before. He sifts through it though - _"hopeful bastard"_ \- and finds at the very bottom a gold jewel almost the length of his palm.

He could head back right now and still be satisfied with being able to rub a gold rupee in Gabriel's face.

"I don't suppose you have rope."

Jesse whips around and tries to pretend as if he hadn't almost been startled out of his hat by Hanzo's sudden appearance behind him. "What? Rope?"

Hanzo looks exasperated, but seemingly not just because of Jesse's response. "Yes."

Jesse can't help but pat himself down even though he knows he has none. "Gotta be honest here, no. Why?"

"There is more Malice just around this corner." Hanzo jabs a thumb over his shoulder. "And the remains of the Guardian are in it."

"Oh. That's…"

" _Disappointing_." The tone of Hanzo's voice when he says it is almost enough to convince Jesse that he could shame the Guardian and all of its creators for this unfortunate turn of events.

"Sorry about your luck."

Hanzo sighs. "Don't be. With the condition it's in now I doubt I could get anything useful from it anyway, even if I could get it out of the pool. I take it you were somewhat more successful?"

Jesse displays the rupee carefully in his hand. Hanzo's eyes widen slightly, but he doesn't react any more than that.

Instead, he says, "Thank you for your offer, McCree, but your assistance is no longer necessary."

"Wait a second." Jesse reaches for Hanzo's shoulder before he can turn and walk away. "Why don't you stick around? You saw the size of this place. And this?" He holds the rupee up. "This is just a fraction of what could be here. You might not be able to pick apart the Guardian like you wanted but you can still get something out of it."

"I can search on my own," Hanzo says pointedly. "Do you still feel as if you owe me something?"

"A little, yeah, considering your mark's done and stuck over there and I hardly did anything."

"All true." Hanzo crosses his arms as he considers the new offer. When his eyes linger on the gold rupee, Jesse wonders if he'll simply ask for that instead. But then he shrugs and says, "I need funds, too. We both go search this place and I get to sell half of what we find. Does that sound like a deal?"

"As long as I get to keep this," Jesse says. "I gotta have something to bring back, show that I was here."

"That's fine, you found it first. Let's go. You can tell me what brings a traveler all the way out here through the desert."

_ Left, right, left, right, right, left, right- _

Jesse keeps track of their directions as they go, weaving through narrow corridors that try to lead them in circles, especially when an unavoidable pool of Malice forces them to backtrack. Hanzo must be doing the same since he rarely asks which direction they've been in. Shortly after they cross from one side of the labyrinth to the other with only more dead ends added to their discoveries, Hanzo squints at something peeking out from deep within a pool of Malice and grimaces.

"There had better be something else in this place not covered in poison," he grumbles as they continue on. "Otherwise this is completely unacceptable."

Jesse tells him about the bet that brought him out here to try to lighten his mood, and Hanzo doesn't quite manage to hold back a choked laugh when Jesse mentions the trek Gabriel must be making now through the Gerudo Highlands.

Soon after, Hanzo's luck turns a little as he plucks a curved, sharp dagger with a golden hilt from the very edge of some black sludge. He wields it easily after scraping the goo from it, but only for a few seconds before he stores it away in a satchel that is, as far as Jesse can tell, filled only with odd looking gears and springs.

_ Left, right, left, right, left, left, right- _

The afternoon is starting to wane when they come across a body - a corpse little more than a pile of bones now, rather. There is Malice hardened on its lower half, a clear sign of what happened to an unfortunate explorer. They look down at it in silence for a moment before Hanzo carefully turns it over with his foot, revealing the equipment that was propped up behind them.

"This was recent," he murmurs, bending to pick up a short bow covered in gold markings. A Gerudo make that Jesse has seen in the bazaar from time to time. "Someone very unlucky… or very greedy."

They aren't too far from a thick pool of Malice now. It's a dead end, but Jesse can see something just reaching out from inside it. Maybe something expensive, if they had any way of getting to it. Jesse shakes his head. Not worth getting every scrap of life sucked out of him.

"You taking that off their hands?"

"They certainly have no use for it, where they are." Hanzo opts to hold the bow in his hand rather than stow it anywhere. The bow already on his back - a sleek, black and gold thing more than half his own height - takes up a lot of space as it is. "I have no use for it now either, but it's in good condition and it's a fine make overall. It'll sell."

"Heck of a bow you have now, from what I've seen." Jesse whistles lowly. "I've been wondering about those arrows, too - if you don't mind me asking, of course."

"There's no great secret about them," Hanzo says as they backtrack a little and turn into a new corridor. "There are people who have spent their whole lives researching what little ancient technology remains now, the Guardians included. I met one of them and convinced him to make these arrows in exchange for more parts and anything else I learn about them. They use the same technology as the Guardians, and the Guardians are weak to it."

"So you're chasing Guardians to make more arrows? Why'd you want the arrows in the first place?"

Hanzo doesn't answer. He leads them through the maze silently long enough that Jesse figures he's pried into a stranger's business a little too far. But then he finally answers. "I didn't, actually. I'm searching for something specific from the Guardians. A part that I need to make something else. The arrows are just a means to an end. I do enjoy having them, though," he says with a small chuckle. "They are good, aren't they?"  

Jesse laughs too. "Yeah, they are."

_ Left, right - no, a dead end - _

Hanzo pockets the silver rupee immediately upon finding it. After that, they find nothing more than a dead end, the path blocked almost completely by thick pillars of hardened Malice. They'd gotten turned around and nearly lost a couple times, but when Hanzo asks if he's kept a good track of their steps Jesse feels confident in being able to lead them back out of the labyrinth.

"We might be missing something," Hanzo says when they come back around the first corner. "There are four quarters. We went through three."

"I reckon we have just enough light to finish the job," Jesse says, "so long as the way's open."

The only obstacle they find is a pool of Malice that almost looks to be seeping from a corner, but Hanzo leaps over it easily and continues on. By the time Jesse catches up to him, he's standing in a short alcove with a round golden shield in his hands.

"This should sell, too," he says, showing Jesse the red gem embedded in the center. "Unless you have a use for it?"

Jesse waves the notion away. "Not really, no. I prefer a little distance between me and whatever I happen to be up against."

"Is that so," Hanzo says, not really questioning but still a little curious.

"Yeah. I had a bow myself, actually. Rito crafted. Got in a spot of trouble and lost it, though, and I've been stuck with this ever since." He pats the hilt of the sword strapped to his belt. It's gotten him out of trouble well enough in the past couple weeks, but he really does miss the sturdy bow he'd gotten from one of the few Rito traders he's seen on the road.

Hanzo gives him an approving look. "Archery is certainly something they excel at. It's a shame you lost it."

When they finally come back to the entrance of the labyrinth, the air is cooler and the sun is well out of sight beyond the canyon walls. Jesse had barely even noticed, too caught up in keeping track of which way he was turning in the labyrinth - in Lomei's labyrinth. Part of him still can't believe it - that he just walked out here and is now standing here, dwarfed by even the smallest decoration of the walls around him.

Lost in thought as he stares up at the top of the walls around him, as if he could imprint them in his mind for the rest of his life, he doesn't realize that Hanzo has wandered away from him until he's more than halfway down the long corridor stretching through the centre of the labyrinth. They hadn't run into it again the entire time they were inside, and it doesn't look like it branches off anywhere, but Hanzo is approaching the end almost carefully as if searching for something.

"Looking for something?" Jesse calls as he catches up. When he makes it to where Hanzo now stands still, he finds that the ground falls away for the last stretch of the corridor, replaced by thick metal bars. Below them is a dark, rounded structure. "Oh, hey. It's one of those, uh…"

"It's a shrine," Hanzo finishes. "I was curious. I've heard of these labyrinths before as well, from the researchers. It's said that a master architect was commissioned to build them as trials, and the reward is inside."

Jesse blinks. "You don't say?"

"Hm. There's no hoping for either of us to get in, though. The shrines are only accessible to a chosen few. Or so I've heard. The researchers like to go on about a chosen hero."

"You don't sound convinced."

Hanzo snorts. "I wasn't trying to. Guardians run rampant where there was once commerce. The Divine Beasts are lost. Even this place is infested with Malice. If such a hero exists, they are a tad late, don't you think?" He turns around and heads back to the entrance without another word. He waits for Jesse to catch up again before saying anything else. "We should rest here."

"Hmm? Are you sticking around?"

Hanzo glances away. "I came over the mesa, but it would be very difficult to climb back with these things. I'd like to sell them before I move on. I shouldn't have presumed though-"

"No, no," Jesse waves his hands. His entire afternoon hasn't been without a good dose of surreality and he's actually glad that Hanzo is returning to the bazaar with him. Even if he doesn't stay long enough for Gabriel to make his way back as well, Jesse's still hoping he'll be around long enough to at least get in on some well-deserved celebration. "Ain't anything to fuss about. Traveling together makes it easier on the both of us. We should find somewhere good along here before all the heat's gone. And I don't know about you, but I haven't eaten since before I ran into you and I wouldn't mind your company now any more than I did before."

Hanzo's expression softens a little, almost unnoticeably in the fading light. "For a stranger whom I didn't think to meet in such a desolate place, I suppose your company hasn't been unwelcome either, McCree."

\--

He and Hanzo get back with surprisingly little trouble; the storms kicked up by the Divine Beast are far to the west of them and they fight off the sparking lizalfos that hop out of the dunes with relative ease, even with the extra equipment weighing them down. They're dirty, tired, and low on water when they make it into Kara Kara sometime after midday, but otherwise, they're in good spirits.  

"We need food and a drink," Jesse announces as soon as the inn's entrance is in view. "Lots of drinks. This calls for a celebration! Are you coming?"

Hanzo is a few paces behind him, pulling his hood away and shaking the sand from its inner folds, revealing long black hair, sweat slicked and tied back tightly. "I take it you'll be spending the rest of the day telling everyone who walks in about your adventure."

"I plan to do just that, but later, once my friend is back," Jesse says with an easy grin. "That way he can be front and center while I tell the whole tale. But right now, we both got something good yesterday, figured we both deserve a drink. I'll even do all the buying."

Hanzo shakes his head. "No need for that, I have plenty to spend. I'll have more once I find someone to take these. I won't say no to drinks, though. Will you wait until I'm done trading?"

"Certainly."

Somehow, it isn't until Jesse has stepped into the blessedly cool interior of the inn, nodded at the innkeeper and wandered all the way to a table that he realizes that he doesn't have anything to take through the bazaar. Aside from the gold rupee - a rare treasure with a good measure of satisfaction of its own - Hanzo had picked it all up, and Jesse had hardly even noticed. He'd been too distracted by the manner in which Hanzo had first appeared and the constant awe he'd felt in the shadows of the labyrinth.

He almost feels a little tricked.

He's still thinking about the odd humor about it when Hanzo finds him and slides a few arrows and the golden bow across the table - cleaned of all dust, sand, and Malice residue.

"We did agree that I would only sell half of what we found," Hanzo reminds him when he sees Jesse's questioning look. "And you mentioned having some skill with a bow. You should take it."

Jesse takes it in both hands, feeling the weight of it. It's smaller and lighter than the Rito bow he'd used, but he can probably get used to it quick enough. "Thank you kindly. I was actually starting to feel like I'd gotten the short end of the stick a little bit."

That gets a smirk from Hanzo. "I didn't steal anything, either. You just didn't get to it fast enough."

"True enough, I guess. Anything goes when you're lookin' for riches. There's a chance I wouldn't have anything at all if those Guardians got me."

"True. I don't know if I would have entered the labyrinth if the Guardian hadn't landed there. I did not think there was anything worth looking for aside from the shrine, which is ultimately useless to me."

"Does that kind of thing happen a lot while you're out hunting them down?"

"You mean missed treasure hunting opportunities? Probably." Hanzo shrugs. "But I find enough money and parts as it is."

"But not the specific one you're looking for."

Hanzo regards him carefully for a couple seconds, then seems to deem what he'd been thinking about a non-issue. "No, not yet. Do they have sake here?"

There isn't, but a few minutes later Hanzo is taking wine amiably enough while Jesse has another whiskey, and they both go through a platter of sliced melons like starving men. At first, they only talk about the previous day, and Hanzo laments the fact that the first Guardian he'd shot down had apparently been in quite good condition despite the missing leg, yet still had so few salvageable parts.

Later, Hanzo mentions how difficult it can be to find a Guardian in relatively good condition without risking his tail venturing deep into Central Hyrule since all the ‘best looking' Guardians tend to be on the move constantly. Jesse's initial response to that is to marvel at the fact that there is at least one person who genuinely wants to see a mint condition Guardian - but then he comes up with an idea.

"We should work together."

Hanzo pauses mid-sip and stares at Jesse over the rim of his cup. "What for?"

"Treasure. Guardians." Jesse scrambles to put his thought into words. "Hear me out: I know of a bunch of different spots where there's some good stuff hiding, but a lot of people won't go near ‘em because, see, there are Guardians around. But you, with your arrows, you can take ‘em out. We go digging around - you take the Guardians out and we're golden."

Hanzo sets the wine down with a calculating look. "I take it the Guardians you know of are stationary."

Picky, Jesse thinks.

"I know of at least two instances where they're not." A place in South Necluda comes to his mind first, a place where he knows - a lot of treasure hunters do - that there's a cache. But a Guardian is almost always prowling around it, refusing to move on. One of Hanzo's powerful arrows could certainly do a real number to it.

"I assume this would be a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"I find treasure, you find Guardian pieces - we both get something."

"My equipment isn't cheap," Hanzo says curtly. "You'd better be willing to share some of that treasure."

"I did yesterday, didn't I?"

"That was a different agreement." Hanzo leans back and sizes Jesse up, considering him and the offer silently. After almost an entire minute his expression loses a fraction of its sharpness and he picks his drink up again. "I'll think about it."

They both return to drinking and eating through plates of meat and fruit, quieter but still friendly. Soon after, Hanzo retreats to a room to sort through his satchel of mechanical pieces, leaving Jesse to think over his own offer and the memory of the labyrinth again.

Later on, as the chill of the desert night starts to take over, Jesse wonders if he'll ever have luck like before again - if maybe he'll be the one to find the other labyrinths too.

He'd be a damn legend.

\--

Hanzo doesn't say yes or no in the morning, apparently content to simply rest most of the day. Jesse sees him only once before evening - in the morning when they both sat outside before the sun fully rose and smoked. After that, Hanzo only emerges again when the sun is dipping low again, and he doesn't give any indication towards a decision when he asks to see Jesse shoot.

It's an innocent enough request, so Jesse takes the bow, Hanzo picks the targets - a tree and some fruits laid out on a distant boulder  - and Jesse shoots them down one by one.

"What do you think?" Jesse calls over his shoulder as he picks the arrows out from the sandy, ruined fruits. "Look like I can hold my weight against some stationary targets?"

If Hanzo is at all embarrassed, he doesn't show it as he calls back, "If you would like to venture out and find some moving ones you are welcome to do so."

"Another time, maybe." Jesse stands with the last arrow and turns to Hanzo, stopping short when he notices the figure approaching the oasis from the north.  He recognizes the man's outfit, and the man raises a hand in greeting. Jesse laughs. "Well hey, look who's back! I've been waiting for you to come by!"

It's another couple moments before Gabriel is passing under the trees into the oasis proper, and he does it with the face of a man who already knows what he's walking into - but damn if he won't do it with dignity.

"If you're this excited to see me you _must_ have a story."

"Damn right I do," Jesse says, clapping a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "A good one, too. Come on, get in here, let's grab drinks. I've been waiting for this."

"I'll bet you have been."

Despite the dryness of his tone, Jesse's sure he catches a hint of anticipation as he leads the way back to the inn. He gestures at Hanzo to follow and catches Gabriel turning his head to look at the stranger, but if either of them has anything to say to each other they're distracted as Jesse herds them into the tavern and announces that they need drinks and a good spot to tell a story from.

He starts with the wager made only three days ago. The crowd is light but Jesse recognizes enough of the people who've been out scouring the desert for treasure, and the rest don't seem to mind something to gossip about.

Almost all of them express some disbelief - loudly - when Jesse describes how he'd looked upon the barren wasteland in the east and kept right on going. Tucked into a corner nearby, Hanzo doesn't look as disbelieving so much as vaguely impressed by Jesse's determination. Gabriel simply grins.

Things get quieter when Jesse describes the passage he'd found - dangerous, sure, but not enough to stop a hunter with enough moxie. Everyone knows something's just around the corner.

Then he mentions the Guardian - it's enough to make some people draw back in their seats, just the thought of one making them hold their breath.  One man stands from his seat entirely and points at Jesse.

"Now you're just making things up!" he cries. "You've hardly got a scratch on you, how'd you get out of something like that so easy?"

"I'm getting to it!" Jesse shouts back, waving him down. "As I was sayin', there I was, thinking like an idiot that I was safe when this thing drops from the cliff right behind me - it shoots but I get out of the way just in time. It's missing a leg but it's still quick as all hell and comes down right in front of me. It's lining up another shot and I got nowhere to go - and then out of _nowhere_ -" he swings one arm and points to Hanzo, who looks to be almost preening where he sits. "This archer I ain't ever seen before swoops down and shoots the thing straight in the eye, and before I know it, it blows up. _That's_ how I got out of there."

Hanzo pretends not to notice any of the incredulous looks he's receiving as he takes a long drink.

Jesse doesn't give anyone times to argue about how unlikely they think it is and continues on to when he first saw the labyrinth, and then the second Guardian that Hanzo took down from the cliff. Gabriel looks back and forth between him and Hanzo the whole time, more impressed than anyone else.

Then, the labyrinth. The sheer size of it, the way the walls towered over them and hid so many passages that the view from Hanzo's perch couldn't reveal, and the amount of gold that was there, even if they couldn't get to it all. The mention of poisonous Malice makes some people shift a little again as if to shake off an uneasy feeling.

"But this archer and I, we found it and we found exactly what everyone was hoping we'd find - or they'd find, heh." He takes the gold rupee from his pocket and flips it in the air, grinning at the number of gawking faces before he tucks it away again. "It ain't just a legend, fellas - Lomei's labyrinths are real. If you're feeling bold enough you can go out there and look for yourself. Don't let the barrens trick you out."

"And what now, oh great treasure hunter?" Gabriel asks with a lopsided smile. "You two gonna go off and retire now that you've got your glory?"

Jesse sputters. "Retire? Are you crazy? No, of course we're not done!" In his half drunk excitement, Jesse forgets that Hanzo hasn't actually said anything about a decision to work with him yet, but he continues on anyway. "First of all, I'm too young to let geezers like you have all the fun, and secondly - hell, now we know these legends are actually true, you think we're not gonna keep an eye out for the others?"

There are a few cheers from his listeners and Gabriel laughs. "Then where are you planning on going now?"

Jesse opens his mouth to say that he doesn't rightly know at the moment, but then Hanzo's voice cuts clear in over him.

"Akkala."

"Akkala? Why?" Gabriel asks, voicing the confusion of several people around him. "That place isn't known as a land of nothing for, you know, nothing."

Hanzo smirks. "As far as you know."

Jesse runs with it. "They said there was nothing past the Barrens too. Anything's worth the look now."

It's a good enough answer for Gabriel, who stands up from his stool and claps Jesse hard on the back once. "Gotta say you did pretty good there, kid," he says quietly. "You win." He leans away and says loudly, "Make way, I'm getting another drink," before wandering away.

He isn't the only one to give Jesse a pat on the back - more like a slap, actually - as after he takes his leave others get up from their tables to congratulate him, as well as to ask Hanzo if the story was all true. Hanzo answers politely a few times, and then somehow manages to slip away between one second and the next, melting into the crowd before Jesse can figure out where he's going.

It's a while before Jesse can track him down again. People keep asking him to retell parts of the story - about his brush with death, or how the labyrinth looked - and by the time everything winds down enough for him to finally leave his own table it's very late. The moon is rising over the valley, drenching the desert in silver light and illuminating every puff of breath.

It's bright enough that Hanzo, standing at the water's edge, still dressed in white, practically glows.

"Hey there," Jesse calls, softly as he can manage with the drinks in him. "Lost track of you for a bit there, just wanted to apologize for cornering you there."

Hanzo shakes his head and looks at him over his shoulder. "It's fine. I'd already decided anyway. If we both have something to gain from it, I think we can work together for a time."

"Oh. Well, good! I was hoping you'd say something like that because there's a lot of places that would be great to dig around if not for one of those machines sitting on top of it. Mind if I ask what's in Akkala?"

"My equipment," Hanzo replies. "The researchers that I mentioned have a lab there. If I'm to be of any actual use against Guardians I need to go back there; I only have a couple arrows left, and I need to drop off what I've collected. If it's a problem I can go alone and we can find each other again elsewhere."

"It's not, really. If we parted ways now we'd just be heading in the same direction for a while anyway. Besides, I know a place or two we could stop by on the way."

"Then perhaps we should both go to sleep and we can leave this desert in the morning." Hanzo turns fully and holds his hand out. "I look forward to working with you, Jesse McCree."

"Feeling's mutual," Jesse says, giving his hand a firm shake. "Sleep well."

"Good night, McCree."

 


	2. the labyrinth in the north

It takes almost an entire day to reach the stable on the outskirts of Central Hyrule, even when they really pick up the pace to get out of the storm that greets them on the other side of the canyon. The rain is heavy, but after a week in the Gerudo Desert the rain feels like a blessing to Jesse.

Hanzo must feel the same, because as soon as they arrive and get their horses boarded he strips out of most of his sandy clothes and stands outside behind the shelter, letting the rain rinse away some of the dust stuck to his body. Jesse’s tempted to do the same, but the discomfort of having sand all over him is mostly overshadowed by his hunger. He can visit the lake nearby later, after he’s eaten and the rain has let up. 

There are a few tables inside, separated from the beds by a thin wall and some curtains. He takes a seat with a bowl of cool stew that had been prepared before the rain rolled in and enjoys his dinner alone for about ten minutes before Hanzo joins him quietly. He’s dressed in dark, dry, sand free clothes, but water is still dripping from his long, tangled hair and down the side of his face.

“You don’t go out into the desert very often, do you?” Jesse asks conversationally as Hanzo stirs his stew around with one hand and combs through his hair with the other.

Hanzo shakes his head. “No. I rarely hear of Guardians past the canyon, so I haven’t had much reason to go so far west.” Just before taking a bite he adds as an afterthought, “I don’t think they run too well in sand.”

Jesse tries to picture those mechanical spider legs in the soft dunes. “Knowing that I’m almost half willing to call the desert safe.”

Hanzo gives him a careful look without lifting his head away from his bowl. “Be careful thinking like that. The Guardians were built to operate anywhere in Hyrule, after all. Extreme conditions aren’t a tried and true deterrent. They still go wherever and chase down whoever they please, for the most part.”

That’s a good point, Jesse thinks, nodding. He doesn’t know how they ran before they went out of control, but until recently he hasn’t seen one that was taken down without some good people and the land itself sustaining heavy damage first. The best way he knows of avoiding them so far is to stay away from the ruins they tend to prowl and to not venture too deep into Central Hyrule. 

More than that, he knows it’s a matter of knowing how to stay out of sight - he’s not the only one who’s gone against both those recommendations to hunt for treasure. Hanzo, with his impressive nimbleness and speed, must know that too.

After a few moments of silence, Hanzo speaks up again. “But you’ve been out there several times, haven’t you. Treasure must be buried and revealed constantly.”

“More or less.” Jesse folds his hands over his middle comfortably. His stew’s gone but he’s content to just sit back if Hanzo’s in the mood to chat. “If you’re willing to deal with a few lizalfos then you can dig around out west almost any time you want. Out east, eh, you heard it before. There’s not much out there; hardly even anywhere to get out of the sun for a while, so it’s been a long time since anyone’s gone out there for anything other than to visit the heroines. Couldn’t have told you before you showed up whether I knew if I was on anything other than a fool’s journey. Especially these days, with that Divine Beast roaming around.”

“It’s like that in other places,” Hanzo says. “The Divine Beasts, that is. That one in the desert isn’t the only one more active than usual.”

“Gotta tell you straight, that sounds pretty ominous.”

“It certainly isn’t  _ good _ news.” Hanzo shakes his head as if to drop the subject. “But it’ll be easy to avoid all of them. There isn’t anything of interest to them in Akkala anyway.”

“Wouldn’t happen to know of anything of interest to us up there, would you?” Jesse asks. He’d made it up on the spot, but after the discovery in the supposedly empty East Barrens he’s found himself really wondering if maybe they’ve all been overlooking something more in that deserted region. “Aside from your equipment, of course. I’m still on board with heading up there with you.”

“Hmm. There may be a place or two you might like to see. I take it you haven’t been that far north.”

“Not in the east, no.”

Too quiet, too empty.

“Well, I’ll tell you now that the entire region has all sorts of Guardians prowling around it. If it’s ruins you're after, there are no shortage of them.”

Hanzo smiles a little as he talks. Jesse is tempted to ask him what exactly makes the idea of facing down a hoard of Guardians enjoyable but decides against it. They’ve known each other hardly more than a few days, and if Hanzo’s expression gives Jesse the distinct sensation of being kept in the dark he can’t be certain that it points to a plan to double-cross him, and he doesn’t want to give the impression that he’s planning the same for Hanzo. Not that he hasn’t done it before, but he hasn’t found it to be a good idea for a while now, and it still sounds like regardless of what Hanzo chooses to tell him now, sticking around will offer him better opportunities than sneaking away would. 

If there’s really something to see in Akkala, he’ll figure it out when they get there.

They finish eating - and drying off, in Hanzo’s case - quietly. Hanzo bids him goodnight as the sun dips below the mountains in the west and Jesse takes a few minutes before heading to bed himself to shake the sand out from the clothes he’d worn through the desert, glad that he can safely don his favorite red cloak again. 

In the morning, he rolls out of bed before Hanzo wakes up to finally rinse the dust away in the lake, and by the time he redresses and returns to the stable Hanzo has already lead his horse from the stable and is sitting in the saddle with what might be an entire half of a banana in his mouth. He simply nods in greeting and gestures to the stable with his free hand, telling Jesse with a grunt that it’s time to head out. 

“What do you think about stopping by in Necluda?” Jesse asks once they’ve set off. The Great Plateau rises up on their right, a derelict fortress built into the cliff, and they follow the old road that curves around it. It forks ahead, giving them the choice to cross the Hylia River in the north or east. “The river splits where the road crosses; folks on the other side of the peaks like to call it the Squabble. There’s a couple of stories about it if you’re interested, but more importantly, there’s something there I think we could take a shot at.”

That catches Hanzo’s interest. “What do you know about it?”

“There’s a cache in the area, jewels for the most part. You ever hear about the Bandit King?”

“Maybe. Did he meet a gruesome end like everyone else who’s tried to call themselves king in the last century?”

Jesse doesn’t know exactly what happened to the so-called Bandit King, but he figures it went something like how most hunters and bandits he’s heard about go down - left one day looking for more glory and never made it back. Maybe it did happen gruesomely, maybe it didn’t. He shrugs it off and tells Hanzo the old folktale about how the bridges over the Squabble River were built, how two brothers had fought over who should be properly recognized for the protection of the area and eventually wound up each with a bridge that they named after themselves. 

The bridges themselves are little more than planks of wood stuck together that resist the pull of the river through the sheer force of will from the people who maintain them, nicknamed Big Twin and Little Twin, but it’s relaxing to recall the story and recite it. Hanzo seems contemplative as he listens. 

“I’ll get to the point, though. The story goes is that old Misko, may his kingly soul be at rest and what have you, left a cache in that area - and a riddle.” Jesse squints at the horizon, where the Dueling Peaks jut up to the clouds, and he puts the riddle together in the right order in his mind. “He said, ‘the little twin steps over the little river. My cave rests above that river’s source.’”

“That’s a very simple riddle,” Hanzo comments. “It cannot still be unsolved.”

Jesse snorts. “Of course not. I know where it is, it’s just a matter of getting into it. Someone’s gotta either pick their way through the boulders blocking the way or blow them up. Either way, you’d be drawing the attention of one of our good one-eyed friends. Hasn’t been a day I’ve gone up there yet that I haven’t spotted that thing scuttling around somewhere nearby, and it’s not exactly the best spot to try and deal with one, even if I  _ did _ have the means to.”

Hanzo nods in understanding, pleased to hear the Guardian is in good enough shape to be doing anything close to scuttling. “If it’s just the one, then it’s feasible. Show me where it is and I’ll get us to that treasure.”

It takes a full day of riding to reach the spot Jesse remembers, through the Dueling Peaks and into Necluda instead of around it. It’s too wet and unstable to bring the horses up the river, but they make it upstream just fine on foot - Jesse’s always been good at keeping his balance and Hanzo flows as easily as the water below them over the rocky terrain. The source of the river itself is a thin waterfall spouting from inside the mountain, and above that is a badly concealed hole in the wall.

It was probably hidden better before, Jesse thinks, but attempts to get into it over time have worn down the heavy boulders.

“Cliffs are a little taller than I remember,” he says as they both survey the area from the safety of a patch of woods that takes up the eastern bank. The waterfall is tall, but the shelf rises more than twice its height. 

Hanzo is in the middle of a stretch but pauses to cranes his neck back to give it a critical eye. “It’s not impossible,” he says dismissively. “Where does the Guardian usually patrol?”

Jesse gestures over the entire length of the escarpment rising from the western bank. There's nothing that he can see up there. “You can’t see it very well from here, but it can sure as hell see you if it happens to pass by when you’re tryin’ to dig through those rocks.”

Hanzo hums and then pulls an arrow from his quiver. “I will find it. In the meantime, take this. There’s no point in wasting time even if the Guardian isn’t a problem.”

The arrow he presses into Jesse’s hand is tipped with a tight ball of red cloth marked with a small white skull. 

“Damn. Bomb arrows, huh?”

“I thought they might come in handy, so I bought a couple before we left Kara Kara, although I’ve never used any myself. Have you?”

Jesse nods. “Once or twice.” They’re hard to come by outside of the Gerudo region and there isn’t much use for them in the desert, so he hasn’t had the opportunity very often. They aren’t a difficult thing to figure out, though, seeing as all he has to do is hit something hard enough to trigger the explosion. 

“Good, because we only have the one to spare. Try not to miss.” Hanzo stretches once more, preparing for a lengthy climb. “Keep an eye out for me, I’ll signal you when I’m done.”

With that, Hanzo slips out of the trees and down to the waterfall. He pauses there to scan the top of the cliff, but it still appears empty, even from Jesse’s position, so he starts his climb undisturbed. He reaches the top quickly and pauses again to check for the Guardian, then crosses over the top of the waterfall and begins the much longer climb up the western cliff.

Jesse, still crouched in a bush with a bomb arrow, has little to do except glance around himself for stray bokoblins, stare at the clifftop, and watch Hanzo slowly move to the right as he climbs. He isn’t quite as fast now, but he’s moving steadily, finding purchase on the rock face with surprisingly little difficulty. He’s about halfway up when Jesse finally spots movement above him. 

Even with the distance and the height he has to look from, it’s very clearly a Guardian. Nothing else is that large and moves that smoothly. Jesse holds his breath instinctively as it approaches the edge, its cap swiveling around constantly. With nothing in sight to antagonize, it doesn’t glow purple; Jesse can only catch a faint smudge of blue.

Hanzo, unaware of the Guardian, keeps climbing. Jesse almost calls out to warn him, but he catches himself. The Guardian is still moving near the edge but it doesn’t seem to know Hanzo is there, either. Too far from the waterfall to see easily, maybe. Jesse could be wrong, but it looks like Hanzo is in a perfect position - the Guardian only has to scan over the edge of the cliff, but unless it leans over Hanzo can stay out of its sight. The angle is just sharp enough for now.

Hanzo, as if sensing Jesse’s tense thoughts, pauses and looks over his shoulder, spotting Jesse after a few seconds. Jesse points upward, trying to make the gesture visible enough and hoping that Hanzo understands. Hanzo looks away, focusing on the climb again. 

The Guardian, still unaware, doesn’t move for a few moments. It just stands there, its glowing eye looking in the direction of the waterfall. 

Then it turns around and stalks out of sight. Hanzo slows almost to a stop when he reaches the top, carefully looking over the edge, searching for the Guardian. Then, with a last look over his shoulder, he climbs over and disappears. Jesse is alone, holding the bomb arrow carefully between his fingers with nothing else to do but wait and hope Hanzo doesn’t get blown up. 

For a while, there’s nothing. He tries to catch even an echo of any blasts, but it’s difficult to hear anything like that over the waterfall. He doesn’t see any more movement from above, either. All he can find when he checks is a new shape in the clouds. A bird here, a big moth there.

Finally, after what feels like an hour of waiting and pacing to keep the feeling in his legs, Hanzo appears again. He waves at Jesse, putting his whole arm into the gesture, and then points to the waterfall. That must be the end of it, Jesse thinks. He stands up with a grin and tugs his bow from his back.

Hanzo doesn’t make his way down until after Jesse fires the arrow and the resulting explosion opens a great hole in the side of the mountain. The loose rocks tumble down into the river and onto the shore, not quite blocking it up but still offering a step up when Jesse starts climbing up soon after, following the route up Hanzo had taken previously.

The cave is damp, dusty, and a little smoky from the explosion, and at first glance, it’s empty but for cobwebs almost a big as Jesse is. But then his eyes adjust to the dimness, and he can see a few old crates stacked against a wall, a little damaged from the explosion but mostly intact, and a couple sturdy looking chests, one of which is half buried under stones in a corner.

“Jackpot,” he breathes, practically giddy with the accomplishment that the Guardian had held him back from for months. 

Hanzo drops down a few minutes later, breathless and clapping dirt off his gloves. “Well? What did this Bandit King hide here?”

Jesse turns to him and shows off a sapphire. “Not a bad stash, I gotta say.” He gestures to the chest in front of him and Hanzo looks into it with a pleased hum. There are a few handfuls of blue and red rupees glimmering dimly, but most of the space is taken up but another chunk of sapphire and a none too shabby collection of opal and amber. There's one stone that seems to be giving off a bright turquoise light on its own, too. He nods at the other chest. “Might need a little help getting that one out.”

The second chest looks smaller before they dig it out, but turns out to be much longer, fitted to store weapons more than riches. Hanzo reaches inside as soon as they uncover it and pulls out a long, wide blade. He turns it over his hands a couple times, inspecting the curved lines etched into its length - and then the cave is awash with orange light as the entire blade seems to catch fire. 

Jesse whistles and takes a half step back from the sudden heat. The light quickly dims almost to a simple glow, but the heat remains. “Damn. That must be one of those magic blades-”

“I just climbed up and down a mountain,” Hanzo states before Jesse can finish. He stares at Jesse over the blade and the magical blade puts his sharp features in an almost ominous light. His expression alone is enough of a statement.

Jesse laughs and throws his hands up in mock surrender. “Take it, you earned it!”

Hanzo’s eyes practically glitter in the firelight as he smiles, the ominous look wiped away. “I wondered if we would be as successful today as we were before. It seems I shouldn’t have been concerned.”

“I say we head back to the stable and treat ourselves a little,” Jesse says, nudging the jewel chest with his foot. “This side of the Peaks always has a better drink selection, even just at the stables.”

“That sounds like a fine evening. Let’s be off.”

\--

They end up selling off all but a few pieces of the cache. Once night falls over the stable a few traders are among the travelers that stop in for the night, and they’re more than happy to look over the jewels and haggle. Hanzo is tempted to keep the sword, but eventually accepts an offer and tells Jesse that if he ever runs out of arrows then he has a fine enough blade of his own. The only things he keeps are a few of the rupees and a white cloak that they’d dug out of one of the crates, which looks much like the one he already wears except for its blue bordering. Once the sword is in another’s hands, Hanzo wanders away to spend some of his recently earned rupees on a bottle of sake. 

Jesse settles for a flask of whiskey from his own packs as he recalls their day. It had gone great, all in all. Hanzo had apparently not found exactly what he wanted from the Guardian but they’d gotten the stash with hardly a scratch on either of them.

So long as they both benefit and neither of them gets blown up in the future, Jesse’s half convinced that the other hunts he’s thinking of tackling might go just as well. Between how content he is and how tired Hanzo is, they fall asleep easily.

In the morning they set off early again, backtracking through the Dueling Peaks and heading north again. Not too far from where the Squabble River feeds into the much larger Hylia, they stop at another stable briefly, and there Hanzo questions Jesse about more work that would benefit both of them.

Jesse thinks for a moment, sorting through the places he remembers there being both Guardians and at least a chance at finding treasure. “You ever go out into Tabantha at all?”

“Sometimes, yes.”

“There’s a canyon there, right, with a temple wedged in it, and I couldn’t tell you for the life of me what it was for, but what I do know is that it used to be a pretty grand place.”

Hanzo nods knowingly. “Grand places always have something left behind to pick out later.”

“Exactly. The place is absolutely filled with Guardians, though. You can’t even walk in the door properly without getting shot at.”

Hanzo lifts his eyebrows. “That sounds dangerous but promising.”

“I hope so. They’re all old things as far as I can tell, not sure if any are up to walking around like you seem to prefer, but with the number of them in there I figure at least you’d be gathering a good amount of materials.”

“That’s true.” Hanzo sighs quietly. “To be honest, what I’m looking for is an exceptionally rare component, quite difficult to get a hold of after a Guardian is shut down regardless of its condition.”

“Considering what those arrows do on the outside, I’m not surprised to hear what they do on the inside.”

“It’s hit and miss, sometimes.” Hanzo chuckles quietly. “Anyway. Guardians have a crystal core inside that maintains their power. They’re fragile, though. Prone to shattering. Sometimes they survive being struck and I can salvage a piece or two. Even rarer than that, though, is when the core survives in its entirety.”

“Would it not just continue running if the core’s intact?”

“Not if the connection between it and all its functions is severed. Like I said, though, it’s very tricky business. Possible, but tricky. If the Guardians in that temple are in poor condition then it’s unlikely I’ll find what I want. I’ll still go, however. I won’t say no to more materials.”

“Great,” Jesse says, relieved that Hanzo is convinced. “You’ll be restocking too, so it’s not a bad place to check out.” 

Satisfied with their plan, they finish a small lunch and then leave the riverside stable behind, continuing north on the other side of the river. There are wetlands on the other side and the wind becomes wet and chilly as they get near. Jesse takes one look at the old road leading further in and tries not to grimace. 

It’s a forgotten road, mostly. A shortcut through the wetlands that most travelers making their way north ignore in favor of passing by another stable. The ruins of a small village stand on what little dry ground is there, but he knows from experience that it had been picked clean long ago. The last time he’d used the route was on a trip to see the Gorons and haggle with the rock-loving folk over a collection of gems, and it had been both wet and dangerous because of an entire settlement of lizalfos. This time around he’s not sure what they might be up to, but the area itself seems to be a lot wetter, somehow.

He suggests avoiding that road altogether and Hanzo agrees.

“It’s coming down from Zora’s Domain,” Hanzo says offhandedly later on. “The flooding.”

Jesse blinks, a little surprised. The Zoras, as far as he knows, are a bit reclusive and none too fond of Hylians. There’s a little trade with them, but not much else. “You’ve been up there?”

Hanzo shakes his head. “No, but I heard rumors that last time I came through here. It’s not a lot, but it’s still a hassle we’re better off avoiding. I’d wager it to be a result of their own troubles with a Divine Beast.”

“I don’t mind going around that. Won’t take that much longer to get up north.”

Avoiding the wetland road hands them a few more hours of travel, but it isn’t long after nightfall that they arrive at a stable that serves as a checkpoint at the borders of both Akkala and Eldin. Death Mountain looms over them in the north, its eternal lava flows forming a dim beacon in the night. To the east though, somewhere on the other side of the lake and the tall cliffs that stretch over the border, Hanzo describes a tall, steep mountain topped with a crumbling citadel. 

“It marks the real border into Akkala,” he says. “It’s a dangerous place, but we won’t be able to avoid going near it.”

Jesse knows a little about the spot, although he’s never been closer to it than he is now. A promising place for treasure, but supposedly crawling with monsters and ancient Guardians. It sounds like a dream for someone with a goal like Hanzo’s if it were ever possible for one person to tackle it. Hanzo doesn’t say it, but he seems to be in agreement. He stares into the darkness in the north-east almost wistfully. 

_ Akkala. A land known for nothing. _

Hanzo wakes him up at the same early hour they’ve woken up and hit the road on the previous days, undeterred by a little less sleep. 

“You are welcome to stay behind but I’d like to get to the lab today,” he says when Jesse grumbles about it.

Thinking about the echo of Gabriel’s voice makes him pause when Hanzo says it. 

_ “That place isn’t known as a land of nothing for, you know, nothing.” _

_ “As far as you know.” _

He’s curious, he admits. Maybe Hanzo simply doesn’t like only having one of his fancy arrows left in his quiver, but Jesse also knows a poker face when he sees it. He keeps his questions to himself as they eat, though, and they set off again as soon as they’re done. 

He doesn’t mind sticking around as they enter Akkala proper, either. Despite its supposed lack of anything interesting, the land is beautiful - all red earth and woods that seem to be in perpetual autumn colors. The air itself seems golden. It’s quiet, too. Peaceful.

The only thing to break it up is the mountain that Hanzo had described earlier. It comes into view a few hours after they leave the stable - sharp, imposing, but ruined all the same. The citadel looks to be little more than a broken shell with a shattered bridge leading to it. Far above, grim smudges of black and blue circle around the entire mountain. Knowing that they are far out of range of the ancient machines is only a small comfort.

“This was the last line of defense,” Hanzo says quietly as they approach the bridge. “Few other places in the entire kingdom were as defensible as this. It wasn’t enough, though. Not with the royal leaders gone and the sheer number of enemies. Akkala’s renown is for little more than nothingness and doom.”

As he’d said before, there really is no way around the citadel. Jesse can just see it as it was in its prime a century ago, the beacon that it was. Safe, unassailable. A promise of protection.

He doesn’t look back at it once they pass the bridge and follow the road down into more thick woods. It’s less of a road now and more of a beaten path that a few rare travelers have kept from growing over, becoming almost non-existent as it winds through the trees between a small ridge and the much more imposing base of Death Mountain. Hanzo seems to know where he's going, though, and Jesse follows carefully. Eventually, they come out to on top of a hill before great fields of tall grass and sparse groups of trees scattered between a couple small valleys. Hanzo points to another mountain in the distance, far to the north.

“The way is easy from here,” he says. “Aside from a couple roaming bands of bokoblins, we should have no trouble. We’ve made good time so far.”

It doesn’t look like too great of a distance, but when they reach the bottom of the hill the grasslands seem to stretch out farther and farther. As they get closer to the mountain in the north, Jesse realizes just how far north they’re headed. 

It’s another lonely corner of the land, quiet and far away.

The road rises gently and as they move higher he can see the ocean to his right. The grasslands drop off altogether there into what is sure to be a long fall to shore. But in the north, just before that drop, there’s a small structure which steadily grows as they close in on it. It could have been a lighthouse, once. Now there seems to be a giant telescope mounted precariously on top of it. 

“That’s the lab,” Hanzo says when he catches Jesse squinting at the strange shape of it. “It might not look as such, but there is space to rest there. Come this way.” Instead of continuing up the hill, Hanzo veers off to the right, into a patch of trees. 

“What are we doing this way?” Jesse asks, following. There’s a small trail here, too.

“It’s easier to go around this stretch,” Hanzo explains. “You can’t see it from the road because the rocks hide it from view, but the researchers… Their primary focus is the Guardians and they need subjects to study if they are to learn anything, so they keep a semi-functional one near their lab. I’m not allowed to disable it any further, they were strict on that. We could pass it at a gallop but it would still see us for some distance up the hill and I don’t want to risk damage to the lab. Around this way, the rocks and trees are more than enough cover until we are out of range.”

“Semi-functional, you say.”

“It cannot move.”

“That’s just what I was hoping for. Lead the way, then; I might prefer taking the safe way through at this time of day.”

It isn’t too late yet. The sun is still up, but the afternoon is winding down. Twilight will be on them before long. The light through the autumn colors and on the ruddy ground only makes the beauty he’d thought about more pronounced.

A land of nothingness and doom. And yet, beauty. 

The sky is streaked with pink and orange when they finally arrive at the lab. It looks even more ramshackle up close, especially when Jesse sees what is very clearly a pit filled with dark Guardian shells nearby, and another shell hanging on a large hook attached to the side of the building. Hanzo is undisturbed by the sight and leads Jesse to a small stable attached to the opposite side. 

“We will let them know we’re here and then the horses will have food and water,” he says as they lead the horses in. There’s only one other horse inside, an old thing that looks wary of them but doesn’t seem perturbed by the company otherwise. He pats his dark mare on the nose and murmurs to her before they head to the front door. On the way, he glances at an odd, circular furnace, unlit, but covered in ash from previous uses. He _tsks_ but says nothing about it before pounding on the door and then opening it.

Jesse’s eyes don’t adjust to the dimness before he hears a loud voice from inside. 

“What -  _ ho _ ! Who’s interrupting me?”

Hanzo stands quietly in the doorway as a softer voice responds. “Oh, it’s just that archer. Robbie, it’s Hanzo again.”

“What? Barging in while I’m-” the voice cuts off as something clatters to the ground inside. Jesse peeks inside in time to see a very short, very old man push a pair of strange metal goggles onto his face and then face the door with his hands on his hips. “Oh, it is you, back once more. And not a burn on you! You are alive,” he says before his face twists and he turns sharply and grasps a statue standing behind him desperately. “Unlike my dear Cherry!”

There’s a woman standing in front of a tall bookshelf at the side of the room. She watches the scene and shakes her head. “Not dead, Robbie, it will be fine.”

Hanzo turns to her and speaks finally. “How long has the furnace been unlit?”

The woman taps her chin. “Oh, only a few days now. You arrived almost perfectly - oh, is he with you?”

Jesse tips his hat when she gestures at him. “I am. Pleased to make your acquaintance, ma’am.”

“I’m Jerrin,” she says with a small smile. “That’s my husband, Robbie. We are researching ancient technology at this lab.”

“Just the two of you?” Jesse asks, glancing around. The entire ground floor seems to be lined with bookshelves along with a couple desks covered in notes, but there’s no one else around.

“Cherry would be assisting us if she were not so lifeless and cold!” Robbie laments, still focused on the statue that stands a head taller than him. 

“The furnace just needs to be re-lit,” Jerrin says as Robbie continues in low moans. “Ah, but it’s going to be dark soon, it’ll be too dangerous to go to the fire. What about tomorrow? There’s not much we can do for you until then.”

Hanzo nods. “That’s fine. We’ve been traveling the entire day, I’d rather rest.”

“Of course! Did you bring horses? Let me get the feed, just a moment…” Jerrin shuffles to one of the desks and starts bookmarking pages in the books spread across it, murmuring to herself.

“Thank you,” Hanzo says, stepping out of the doorway. The door swings shut without his hand holding it back, closing them off from the sound of rustling papers and Robbie’s muttering. “Come over here for a moment,” he says, leading Jesse away from the door and around the left side of the lab again. He passes the stable and leads Jesse to a low hill. “Robbie is… somewhat fixated on that robot of his. It makes the equipment I’ve been using, but if the ancient furnace is not lit then the robot is useless. I’ve had to relight it before with ancient fire. You can see it from the cliff up here.”

There’s another pit of dead Guardians on the way up, partially overtaken by wispy vines and wildflowers. Beyond it, Jesse has to tilt his hat down against the low sun. He stops near the edge of the cliff and squints at the spot Hanzo points to - another small mountaintop on the other side of a narrow lake, where something shimmers bright blue. 

“It’s a long walk and not an easy one, but that fire needs to be brought here.”

Jesse scans the winding path up the mountain. The lower half of it is blocked in multiple places by fallen stones and the upper half looks to have at least one camp of giant moblins. Not exactly a good spot for a stroll.

“You’re welcome to wait here,” Hanzo continues. “I’m familiar with the way there and back.”

“Couldn’t hurt to have someone watching your back, though,” Jesse says. “Nah, I said I’d come along to get your stuff, I don’t mind helping out.”

“It would be difficult to maneuver with a horse there, so I hope you’re ready to hike.”

Jesse chuckles. “I reckon I wouldn’t be a very good treasure hunter if I weren’t willing to put some effort into it.”

“We’ll go in the morning then, and if all goes well we’ll be back around midday.”

“Good to know. Should we go help with our horses?”

Hanzo hums in agreement but doesn’t move. He seems to survey the path to the ancient fire again and then looks at Jesse. “There’s just one more thing, then we’ll go back.”

“What is it?”

Hanzo doesn’t answer as he passes Jesse and goes back down the hill. This time, they head around the back of the lab, towards another cliff. There, Hanzo pulls a small spyglass from one of the pouches on his belt and looks through it to the north. Jesse almost asks what it is he needs to see through a glass, but then he looks out into the ocean and the words catch.

It’s huge -  _ massive _ \- how he’d missed it on the way over here is a mystery to him because now it’s impossible to see anything else but the great stone structure rising out of the waves, shrouded in mist and lit in sunset gold, too perfect to be anything natural. 

“You like labyrinths, don’t you?” Hanzo asks. Jesse thinks he can  _ hear _ a smile, but can’t bring himself to even glance away from the labyrinth before him. He’s not sure if he’s even breathing at the moment.

If the one in the desert had been huge, this one is gargantuan, an island of its own. The maze inside is much more complicated too, even from this distance, even when he has to strain to see through the mist.

Nothingness and doom. Beauty and  _ legend _ . 

“Holy-” Jesse breath comes back in a great wheeze. Hanzo looks at him with a smirk. “By Hylia - by all the goddesses - you knew this was here the whole time, didn’t you?”

A nod. “Of course. I thought about saying something before - in that desert maze, but,” he shrugs, “it wasn’t really any concern of mine. Now, I thought you would like to see, if only to know something few others do, because, as you might have noticed, it is inaccessible. Unless you know how to fly, that is.”

“Can’t say that I do, but still…” Jesse looks out over the water again, over the great walls and the barely visible ancient corridors. Another of Lomei’s creations, here, before his own two eyes. “Shit, but  _ still _ !”

He laughs. He can’t help but think of Gabriel in the cool desert tavern, the only one to voice what everyone else thought - to wonder what could be in Akkala.

“There are Guardians there, too,” Hanzo says with a soft sigh. “They never leave, and I always wonder if I could find a good enough core in any of them. But I cannot fly, either.”

“But we know,” Jesse says breathlessly. He grabs Hanzo’s shoulders. “Which is a lot more than most people can say. A man can hope but that doesn’t mean he’s ever gonna actually  _ see _ something like this-”

“It could be some time before you ever reach it,” Hanzo reminds him. 

“Everyone knows that when they follow whispers,” Jesse counters. “Which is what I’ve been doing. That’s what happens when an idiot kid sets out for a life hunting treasure. But I’ve seen it, and that’s just one step closer. And  _ damn _ \- do you know how astounded I am that out of everything I could have - and  _ did _ \- run into in that desert, I ran into you and ended up here?”

Hanzo doesn’t respond before Jesse hugs him. He tenses slightly and Jesse only then thinks that he may be uncomfortable - and also unable to breathe - but then he still reaches up with one hand and pats Jesse on the back awkwardly.

“I believe I understand,” he says, sounding winded. When Jesse releases him, apologizing quickly, he steps back and smooths out his clothes. “The labyrinth won’t be going anywhere soon. It’s your secret now.”

“ _ Thank you _ .”

You’re welcome, McCree. Now we will help Jerrin.”

\--

He goes back in the morning, just to see that he didn’t conjure it all in a dream. The morning fog is even thicker than it was before, but it is there, sure as day. Standing in the ocean, unchanged by the waves rocking against it or the wind that blows in from the north. He’s not foolish enough to think he could swim out there, even if there were a way in from sea level. Maybe he could sail over and scale the wall. He wonders if Hanzo’s tried that already. 

Hanzo nearly leaves without him while he’s staring off into the fog. He has to jog for a moment to catch up, and then together they slip down from one peak and sneak their way up another. It’s the safest way to the fire - a beaten path curves up and around, but it’s crawling with both bokoblins and moblins, and while Jesse’s pretty confident that they could take on the stumpy little gremlins, moblins aren’t something he really wants to deal with while trying to climb a mountain or come back down with a flame. 

There are still a couple close calls on the way up. Climbing is second nature to Hanzo, but Jesse takes a little longer to catch up, and there are a couple moments where he slips and catches the attention of one of the giant monsters they’re trying to avoid. He keeps his hat down as Hanzo sends him a sharp look from ahead, and eventually they move on undetected.

The peak is surprisingly empty of anything that wants to kill them. Hanzo approaches the cradle of stone where the ancient fire burns and lights their torch without a hitch. There isn’t much for trouble until they start their descent - the bright blue flame is difficult to hide despite how they try to sneak back down. They end up running down the path - sliding down a drop or two where they can manage - while Jesse shoots anything that gets too close to their tails. By the time they make it back around the lake there’s a trail of bokoblins who are at the very least badly injured, and a moblin cradling a bloody socket.

They’re both grinning when they reach the relative safety of the lab. Out of breath and sweaty as midday rolls around, but laughing through the exhilaration. Jesse almost forgets to stand back when Hanzo tips the torch into the empty furnace and the whole thing lights up in a burst before settling in a soft blue. There’s a deep click from somewhere above them, then from inside, and then they hear Robbie crying loudly.

Robbie praises Cherry’s “miraculous” return for a moment before he and Hanzo finally get down to business. Jesse watches them spread Hanzo’s collection of scavenged Guardian components over the desks - a downright impressive pile of gears and springs and screws in various sizes - then negotiate the cost of the arrows Hanzo wants, and then, without a moment's hesitation, begin feeding more than three-quarters of the materials into a wide slot on Cherry’s front. Cherry, with a mechanical but still somewhat soft female voice, lists off the exact materials they need as they go, glowing slightly brighter with every new piece fed into her. After the last piece, she thanks them, thanks Hanzo for the rupees, and then starts humming quietly. 

“She’s working,” Robbie says when the humming doesn’t stop after a few moments. “Don’t stare, it won’t do anything.”

Hanzo explains that it usually takes several hours for everything to be said and done - in this case, for all of the components to be melted down and reshaped into several arrows and a knife - and that he usually spends the time resting or assisting Robbie with his notes if he has anything new to add. Robbie is largely uninterested in the both of them when it comes to anything else. Jesse finds himself with little to do in the meantime but eat and put his feet up, which he doesn’t mind after hiking all morning. 

They wind up spending a second night in the lab, after. Perched a little precariously on an addition to the old lighthouse is an old room that once belonged to the researchers’ son until some months ago, and it’s just big enough to for a couple beds made from blankets on the floor and for Hanzo to spread out the new arrows.

Up close, they’re the strangest looking arrows that Jesse’s ever seen. They’re huge, fit for Hanzo’s equally large bow and his draw length, and they have the same dim orange glow as the blade he uses to slice open Guardians. The oddest part is the arrowheads, though. They’re round and comically large, almost too much for the shafts, but Hanzo looks them over with a keen eye and is satisfied with each. He catches Jesse’s skeptical look and holds one up.

“Most ancient weapons look somewhat odd when they’re inactive. You know they will work, though.”

“How is that, anyway?” Jesse asks. “Never seen one of those up close yet.”

Hanzo turns the arrow between his fingers, watching the glint of the lamp light off the tip. “Like most ancient things, I suppose. It’s capable of sensing when it’s in use and responds in turn. This isn’t really the head,” he says, tapping it. “That only forms when the arrow is drawn back. They’d be much more dangerous otherwise.”

“No kidding.” Jesse thinks about the Guardian that had ambushed him, the single shot to its eye that had completely finished it in seconds. He certainly didn’t want to be on the receiving end of power like that, especially not by accident. He pictures someone fumbling with such an arrow and turning right to dust. “But you’re a pretty good shot, so I won’t have to worry about getting tapped by accident, do I?”

Hanzo rolls his eyes. “Hardly. I am much better than just ‘pretty good.’”

“Hah! I don’t think I can argue, I think I saw as much on day one.”

“You have no small skill yourself,” Hanzo says, covering one of his eyes with his fingers. “That was an excellent shot!”

Jesse leans back against the wall, pride in his chest. He hadn’t had time to even try finishing the job, but he’s content knowing that the moblin that had gained on them with a heavy club nearly Jesse’s own height is now handicapped by a well-placed arrow in its eye. “Damn right, that’s a lesson it won’t soon be forgetting.”

Hanzo hums a short laugh, then quietly gathers the arrows and stores them neatly with the rest of his equipment. Jesse counts seven ancient arrows in all, which hadn’t seemed like a whole lot until Hanzo mentioned that they’re more than he usually has thanks to the extra funds he’s gathered since meeting Jesse. 

“Why are you after Guardians anyway?” Jesse asks after a few moments of silence. Hanzo looks just about ready to turn in for the night but still rolls onto his side to face Jesse and props his head up on his hand. “I mean, what do you want the parts for? Ain’t a lot of stuff left around here that uses any of it, and it doesn’t look like there’s much money in it. Suppose people are grateful if you get one too close to town, though.”

“There is that,” Hanzo says, shrugging. “I’ve been paid a few times. But ultimately it’s not what I set out to do.” He closes his eyes for a few seconds, thinking. “I want to make a bow.”

“A bow,” Jesse repeats, waiting for elaboration.

Hanzo smirks. “Yes. There’s a rather impressive bow that Cherry - the robot is capable of making. However, the schematics call for a crystal core that is fully intact. Nothing else will work. So I have been searching for a Guardian whose core can survive being shut down.”

“What’s the bow for?”

“Does it have to be for something specific? It’s powerful and I want it.” Hanzo snorts at Jesse’s look of disbelief. “We all have our dreams, McCree. There’s nothing wrong with simplicity.”

“You have a point, but if climbing all across hell’s half acre to face down Guardians for a bow is simplistic, then I’m not sure I want to know what complicated means to you.” Jesse can’t help but laugh - the idea of hunting down machines capable of laying waste to anything they come across and using their remains to make a weapon, he’s not sure if he’d believe it if Hanzo weren’t living and breathing right in front of him. But he’s still right about having such a dream. Jesse would have to pick up a different occupation to deny it.

Hanzo doesn’t seem offended by Jesse’s laughter. Instead, he laughs with confidence. “What about you, then? You said you’ve been looking for treasure for some time. Why spend your life chasing whispers?”

Jesse’s not sure how to answer at first. Because he likes the idea of amassing his own stash to hide one day? Because it takes him all across the kingdom and back? 

He thinks about old Reyes, back against the corner and two drinks in front of him.

“I like making my own luck,” he says, half wondering if Hanzo would mind if he smoked in here. “Used to live in a place with a lot of foot traffic. No reason for anyone to stop by longer than a night, and when they did stop by they were always coming from someplace far and going someplace even farther away. A bunch of them always had stories, too. Gold in the mountains, jewels in the lakes - and in some place nobody’s been to yet, a great test of memory with rich rewards. So, by the time I grew up I figured I was smart enough and a good enough shot to make good on some of those promises. No one to impress but myself, and no royals left to put me down in history for something official, so if there was any way of going about it, I figured this was good enough.”

“You are looking for something to be remembered by.”

“I certainly wouldn’t mind it. I didn’t think I’d actually get to be seeing any of the labyrinths, wasn’t even sure if they existed. But now I know of two, and even if I can’t get to the second I’m still the one that found the first. With your help, of course. Credit given where it’s due.”

“Taken. It’s an admirable enough goal, regardless of what you’ve seen.” Hanzo settles back into his bed. “We’ll make for Tabantha tomorrow. Don’t lose too much sleep thinking of Lomei’s island.”

Jesse doesn’t mean to, though he also doesn’t turn in immediately either. Outside, the sky is clear and the moon is hanging nearly full over the sea, giving the constant fog over the labyrinth a soft glow. He wonders over a smoke whether or not anyone else will come looking for it, their interest piqued by Hanzo’s teasing remark.

Either way, he goes to sleep knowing that Gabriel’s likely to lose his mind when he finds out that Jesse found this one before him too.

\--

They travel for four days to reach Tabantha on the other side of Central Hyrule, keeping to the outskirts of the fields until they reach the stable they’d stayed at when they came out of the desert, then heading north instead of west. They don’t run into too much trouble until they cross into southern Tabantha, where a light storm greets them. The lightning seems never-ending in the distance, and with it come the monsters intent on shocking them right out of the saddle - keese with wings that carry a constant charge and little wizzrobes with sparking wands that giggle at them as they prance around in mid-air. 

But they aren’t far from the canyon that stretches clear across the region and into the snowy Hebra, and the rain won’t soak through their cloaks for some time. Their cover will be just enough to get them out of the stormy area before they reach a good place to rest. They stay on the northward road, and there another traveler hails them. 

“If you’re headed north, then you might want to save yourself the time and turn around now,” the man says, raising his voice as thunder rumbles nearby. “Last I checked the road was blocked up ahead.”

“By what?” Jesse asks. “Rockslide?” 

They could go west, find a good spot to climb down into the canyon from there, but unless the road ahead is completely blocked he’s not sure they need to.

The traveler shakes his head. “No, someone went digging around in one of the mountains up there - must have been for treasure or something, but all they did was wake up one of those old Guardians that was there. When I left Serenne it was still hanging around the bend, driving anyone trying to get around the canyon away. Can’t get through as long as it’s there unless your horses are really fast.” 

Jesse glances at Hanzo as the traveler mentions the Guardian, a target served right to his plate. Hanzo gives him a pointed look. They’d already been planning on heading up there anyway.

“Thanks for the warning,” Jesse says. “Maybe our luck will be different. Stay safe.”

The man looks skeptical about their plan to continue north, but adjusts his packs and continues on without protest. Hanzo only speaks up once he’s far enough away.

“If it hasn’t moved on already then the Guardian may be there for some time.”

“You want to check it out?”

“We’re here for that temple, but if we are in the same area as it…”

“We can tackle it before or after we check out the temple, seems like we’d be hitting two birds with one stone either way.”

“I’m starting to feel like I’m getting more from this arrangement than you are,” Hanzo says carefully. “Although perhaps I’m not totally against it…”

“Maybe we can change things up a bit later. Though the way I see it, though, the Guardian could wander off, but the longer it stays there the longer it’s cutting off that route. And if it decides to come south…” 

“Ah, there are stables on either side of the canyon, aren’t there?”

“Yep. I don’t know how well the thing’s functioning, but I don’t much like the idea of the people there having to find out for us. Sounds like it might have legs at the least, which is more than I can say for the ones in that temple. Those ones ain’t going anywhere soon.”

“True. Let’s continue, then. If we can find it, I will deal with the Guardian.”

The storm is behind them before long. They’re wet but not nearly as much as they could be. Tall, sun-bleached rock formations loom over a long stretch of the road, giving them cover from the last drops of rain and a spot to rest shortly. After that, they climb over a hill and the wind starts to turn brisk; the canyon cuts through the land ahead, and beyond that are the snow-capped mountains of Hebra. Their chill reaches even here, always in contrast with the warmer fields in the south and mixing in the ever-present storms that Jesse and Hanzo had just passed through. 

Near the edge of the canyon is the Serenne stable, and even from a distance, it appears much more crowded than it would usually be. When Jesse and Hanzo arrive, the clerk inside recognizes Jesse and tells him before he even has a chance to speak that there’s nothing to be had in the mountains.

“Not until the Guardian up there’s gone, at any rate,” the old woman says, shaking her head. “There aren’t enough people here right now with the stuff it takes to take care of it right now, and we’ve been sending a bird back and forth to Snowfield since we caught wind of it.”

“Do you know what it looks like?” Hanzo asks.

“Big,” the woman deadpans. “Moves around a lot and locks onto anything that doesn’t look like a deer or a boulder. I’ve heard sometimes it’s back on the mountain but I say that’s worse, it can see you all the better from there.”

“We might still be able to have a shot at it, I think,” McCree says.

“Certainly.” Hanzo nods sharply. 

The clerk blinks in surprise. “You’re going to go up there?”

“Well, he is,” Jesse says, gesturing to Hanzo. “But someone’s got to anyway, don’t they? Just let us sit down for some lunch and then we’ll be off.”

Jesse’s words do little to soothe her concern, but in the half hour it takes for Hanzo to finish eating and be ready to set out again he is no less set on going to the mountain than he was before. Travelers stare at their backs and make whispered bets as they leave the stable. 

“You don’t have to come,” Hanzo says when they pass through the gate. “I will come back when it’s done.”

Jesse shakes his head. “Nah, that won’t sit right with me. The bend’s a nasty choke now with nowhere to hide. Wouldn’t feel right if you went up on your own.”

“I’ve taken the risk before, as you’ve seen.”

“Was it like that down in Necluda? Because back in the desert I recall you saying the mesa wasn’t a good place to take it on. No cover.”

“Do you mean to act as cover for me then?” 

“No, but I figure two’s still better than one. If it sees us, I can distract it while you get a shot. I might have done that in the desert too, come to think of it.”

Hanzo’s lips curl in a faint smile. “In a way, yes. But that plan is sound, I suppose. You should know what to do when we find it, then. Your hat’s big but you shouldn’t cower under it.”

There’s a trick, Hanzo explains, to killing a Guardian without getting close to it. With the right weapons they could ride in on an opening and slice it to pieces from the legs up, but Hanzo has always favored the arrows. Quick and easy, done in one shot if everything goes well. It’s just a matter of not getting blown up, which is easy when there’s a big enough tree or a rock to duck behind. With none of that, though, the trick is knowing when to bolt - the window is tiny, but Jesse’s confident that this time he can make it.

“If it does aim for you, then you have a few seconds before you must run -  _ fast _ \- but try not to let it turn too far away from me,” Hanzo says. “Shooting the eye is the quickest way to pierce the shell. Missing would require another arrow.”

“I won’t make you waste any,” Jesse assures him. 

Patches of tall pines dot the road, fewer and smaller as they go but still offering a little cover if they need it. Hanzo keeps an eye on the plains ahead with his spyglass, but the Guardian remains out of sight, even as they reach the last group of trees large enough to offer even a shred of cover. Beyond them, the road curves around the end of the canyon on their left, and on the right two mountains rise up and frame the road. 

“It must be on the mountain,” Hanzo says, offering Jesse the spyglass. “See for yourself.”

Through the glass, Jesse can see clear evidence of the Guardian’s presence, even if it isn’t in sight. Small craters are scattered across the field, surrounded by scorched earth, a collection of ashy warnings for anyone else coming by. There’s a small pass between the mountains, but that too appears empty. 

At his side, Hanzo dismounts and whispers something to his horse. “I’ll go on foot.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“If it comes around and sees me,” Hanzo says over his shoulder as he walks away, “I know what to do.” 

“Pretty sure a horse can run faster than you.”

“If it gets too close - and it will come closer - the horses will get spooked. I led one off the mesa just fine, I can lead this one off the mountain as well.”

Jesse watches him go for a moment before he sighs and slides out of his saddle to jog after him. Still not right, he thinks. If Hanzo has any objections to his presence he doesn’t say so. On their left, the canyon comes to an end, and Jesse knows that the roof of the ancient temple built within isn’t that far down from the edge. They could have made the easy climb down today, but it looks like now that might have to wait until tomorrow. 

The pass is quiet when they reach it. The mountains rise up on either side, a little too steep to be considered gentle and no real easy way up to boot. Beyond the pass, the land looks to fall away completely - and Jesse knows there’s nothing over the edge but fog. They stand now on the border of the kingdom. It extends north still, but only on the other side of the twin mountains, where it’s much too cold to think about going to. Jesse is kept warm now on the edge of Hebra’s great tundra by his thick cloak, but he’d need something much warmer to go further. He shivers just looking at the blizzard that seems to be blowing out there. 

Jesse’s dragged out of his thoughts by Hanzo’s heavy hand on his shoulder - literally. He’s on the ground before he knows it, pressed almost flat next to some rocks that are barely big enough to be considered boulders with Hanzo next to him.

“ _ Pay attention _ ,” Hanzo hisses. “It’s here. It  _ will _ see us if it looks in this direction. Are you ready for a run?”

“Ready as ever,” Jesse says as Hanzo rises to a crouch. He fixes his hat and peeks over the rocks, following Hanzo’s line of sight. The Guardian’s movements are looking a little choppy, but it still looks like it’s gliding along the mountainside left of the pass. It’s got a good height advantage over them, but doesn’t seem to be looking in the same direction is its legs are moving. 

_ Ready to run, ready to run.  _

Jesse thinks of the desert. It hadn’t been a good place for running, or for cover after the Guardian got him cornered. There’s no cover here, either, but Hanzo - standing now - still seems to know what he’s doing. Jesse takes a deep breath.

“If it gets too close to you, there will be no more running,” Hanzo says, possibly sensing Jesse’s unease. Although, Jesse’s not sure about that because hearing how easy it will be to die in the next two minutes isn’t something he’s found to be thoroughly reassuring. “But do not worry if it targets you. Just keep me in your path and I will have a clear shot before it can come to you.”

That’s a little better, Jesse supposes. He stands up and as if on cue, the Guardian pauses and swivels around - and then looks straight at them and turns a brilliant, garish purple.

Jesse doesn’t know which of them the Guardian targets at first. They both back away from it as it starts to close the distance. Hanzo aims an arrow but doesn’t find a steady enough opening, and then they break apart, turning sharply in different directions and sprinting further into the pass. Jesse nearly trips over his own feet as the explosion rocks the ground behind him, sending debris whizzing past his shoulder. He keeps his footing though and counts it a blessing when the guardian pauses, apparently trying to determine whether or not to go after him or Hanzo. The time it takes to make a decision gives him more time to get away from it again and he tries to get closer to Hanzo again.

He groans when the Guardian lowers itself into the pass in his direction. On the other side of the crater left by the first shot, Hanzo draws his arrow back.

“This way, McCree!”

_ Keep me in your path. _

Towards Hanzo is all Jesse’s got, too. Behind him is the border. Nowhere left to run. It takes only a few seconds for the Guardian to charge another shot, and in that time it gets too close for comfort, much too close for Jesse to dodge. White noise drowns out Jesse’s own breath, and for a split second, he thinks that Hanzo’s wide eyes, blue with the light of his arrow, will be the last thing he sees.

_ “You’re not dead, kid.” _

The arrow burns hot and bright as it passes over his head. Jesse ducks into a roll instinctively when Hanzo fires it. He keeps to the ground as, just like before, the Guardian burns from the inside out with a terrible shrieking noise, shattering glass and grinding metals. He covers his ears this time, though, and keeps his face hidden under his hat.The ground trembles, and then the pass is quiet.

Hanzo crouches next to him and lifts his hat up to inspect his face. “A stone clipped you, but you look unharmed. Are you?”

Jesse nods and tries to shake out the jittery muscles in his legs. “I think so. I’m not dead, at least.”

“No, you’re not. You did fine.” Hanzo sets the hat back down over Jesse’s face and steps over him. “We can rest now, then. Once this cools off I’ll see what I can get from it, then we’ll head back.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll just be catching my breath here.” Jesse doesn’t move until he hears the first cut into the shell. He stands and watches Hanzo pry away small chunks until he can reach inside and yank something out. Something inside clangs before one of the spidery legs disconnects and Hanzo shoves a gear nearly the size of his hand into his satchel. “Where’s the core in that thing, anyway?”

Hanzo gestures to the eye. “A little below there, in the center of the machine. It has a shell of its own that I need to cut through. I usually save it for last and try not to get my hopes up.”

Jesse nods, even though Hanzo is elbow deep in the dead Guardian and can’t see him. With nothing to do but watch him gut the thing, Jesse leaves him to it and wanders back toward the border. He wonders where the Guardian had been sleeping until now, where someone had been digging around before finding a bad end. If there had been any disturbance near the peaks, he can't see them from here. There’s no obvious terrain on the mountainside that might have been blown up recently and could lead him to something more rewarding than a Guardian. 

It’s something to think about later. Maybe he can come back around to have a look for himself after he’s parted ways with Hanzo. 

He glances over his shoulder to see Hanzo tearing up one of the Guardian’s legs. Behind him, the sun is starting to dip low. There’s still a good chunk of the afternoon left, but the sun has partially hidden behind the western peak, giving the white cap a warm glow.

The wind blows strongly from the north again, whistling past Jesse’s ears and making it seem like the great gap before him is yawning. Maybe it is, for all Jesse knows about what’s beyond the border. He can’t see anything that looks like ground or water down below because of the heavy fog that obscures everything from the cliff he stands at to the other side of the gap - and even beyond that, probably. 

The blizzard on the other side seems to have calmed though. The clouds are still thick over the sky there, but instead of a wall of white, he can see where the slope of the mountain meets a plateau with nothing else atop it but a long shelf before it too falls into the bottomless fog. Jesse squints at it. With nothing but distance and blowing snow to obscure it, the shape of it is out of place. Too angular, too perfect for something natural.

He almost drops Hanzo’s spyglass into the abyss as he pulls it out of his pocket, fumbling through the chill and his haste. He focuses on the straight cut formation as best he can until he can make out faint details on it. Long, geometric shapes line the upper half with great swirls below, all worn by the elements and time. Untouched by anything human but still looking to stand for ages yet in the snow and ice.

“Hey, Hanzo? Can you do me a favor and tell me if you see the same thing over here that I do?” Hanzo grumbles something, but Jesse hears him approach a moment later and holds out the spyglass. “Just on the other side, there, while we’ve got a break in the blizzard.”

Hanzo wipes ash off his hands before taking the small spyglass back and looking through it. A few seconds later he lowers it to squint across the gap, then looks through the scope again. Incredulity is written clear across his face as he looks up at Jesse. “That’s impossible.”

A burst of sudden laughter escapes Jesse’s lips. He can hardly believe his own eyes, either. No puzzle, no hint, just a moment of clarity that he happened to be around for - the designs on its walls are too similar to the labyrinth hidden in the desert to be coincidental. There’s another in the frigid north and he’s managed to simply stumble upon it.

That makes three. Here, the Gerudo desert, Akkala. Are there more? Or is he standing here as one of the only people in the land who’s laid eyes on the stuff of legend?

“It seems so close,” Hanzo murmurs. 

“I can’t believe no one’s come across it yet,” Jesse says, lifting his hat quickly to drag his bangs away from his eyes. 

“It’s entirely possible someone did but decided not to tell anyone else,” Hanzo replies with a note of amusement. 

Jesse remembers a moment like this only a few days ago, looking off a cliff at the labyrinth the size of an island that Hanzo hadn’t so much as mentioned beforehand. “You got a point. Maybe it’s all empty in there and all I’m getting is what I can see here, but…”

“You have every intention of going over there.” It’s not a question. Hanzo looks at him knowingly.

“Without a doubt. Maybe someone else saw it before I did, but if nobody’s heard of it yet then they’ve missed out.”

Hanzo turns back to look over the gap. It’s started to snow again, there, slowly obscuring their view of the great walls. “You could climb this mountain to reach it.”

Tricky and tiring, but possible, Jesse thinks. But at the same time, not. “I could also freeze to death. I ain’t prepared to go that far north. Damn.”

It’s the elements once again. Where he’s more than familiar with how to deal with the heat in the south-west, he’s only gone north so many times. He’s prepared for Tabantha’s ever-present chill, but not the icy Hebra with its sharp wind and snow. 

“Either way, your goal is much closer to you than it was before,” Hanzo says, sounding much farther away than he did just a moment ago. Jesse turns to find him already halfway back to the partially gutted Guardian. Jesse isn’t sure what kind of expression is on his face, but when Hanzo glances over his shoulder and sees it he pauses with his hands on his hips. “Don’t forget our arrangement, McCree. I will be around as long as there is something for us both to gain. And if you want what’s in that temple you’ll have to get to it while I’m here or you might miss it.”

“Hey now, I’m the one that told you about that place,” Jesse says. He can’t say it with any ill will, though, seeing as Hanzo’s right. There’s nothing stopping him from going in on his own now that he knows the location. That’s the way of it with most people Jesse knows. He casts another look at the labyrinth, almost completely hidden again in the snow, and then follows Hanzo from the edge. 

By the time he catches up Hanzo has climbed almost entirely inside the Guardian and is hacking away at a black metal sphere inside. The glowing knife seems to burn away whatever it touches but the way the muscles in Hanzo’s back and arms flex as he drives the knife in and carves a chunk of metal away tell Jesse that the task is more difficult than it looks. 

“The core’s in there, right?”

Hanzo grunts and tosses a chunk of scrap the size of his hand behind him, finally creating an opening large enough to see and reach into. “What’s left of it, anyway.”

“Not fully intact, I take it.”

Hanzo shakes his head, but still sticks one hand through. It comes back with a translucent gold sphere that glitters even in the shade. It’s cracked and missing a shard or two, but it fits in Hanzo’s palm perfectly when he shows it to Jesse. “This is only a piece of what it would have been fully intact. Even like this, though, it can power several kinds of ancient machinery. Not that such things really exist anymore.”

“Looks like it’d fetch a good price, though,” Jesse says as Hanzo slips the core into his satchel. It clinks against the rest of his small collection as he climbs down from the Guardian.

“Of course, it’s made of crystal and it’s pretty. At any rate, we should head back. I have enough from this and it will be dark soon.”

A gust of wind nearly blows Jesse’s hat off as they go, a deep moaning in his ear. He looks over his shoulder again, a last glance at the edge and the blowing storm beyond it. Another lonely corner of the world, waiting and waiting. 

It’s late when they return to Serenne. Their horses had wandered through the trees a little, but they respond quickly to a sharp whistle from Hanzo. The other travelers at the stable are relieved to hear that the road is open again, and when someone asks how they’d done it Jesse tries to make it sound like he’d done something a little more useful than running in a circle while Hanzo shot it down. He leaves the labyrinth out entirely when he says he isn’t sure whether there’s really something worth digging up there. 

He’s still thinking about it later as they settle in to sleep. He can’t help it, what with knowing that it’s nearby and that unless something too much for him to climb around or sneak past is in the way, he could just find suitable clothing and stand before that trial, too.

“There could be Guardians there, too,” he says quietly. Hanzo has his back to Jesse in the next bed, but Jesse knows it takes more than a few minutes of silence for Hanzo to fall asleep.

He still doesn’t respond for a little while, though. And then, without turning over he says in a muffled voice, “That is certainly possible.” 

After that, nothing. Jesse falls asleep shortly after.

In the morning, Hanzo is awake before he is. Fully dressed and eating a banana, he looks at Jesse as soon as he sees he’s awake and says, “I imagine the Rito are the only ones that can make something warm enough to withstand the climate in the north.”

Jesse blinks heavily and rubs the grit from his eyes. “What, have you been thinking about it?”

“There were… several things of interest in the last one. And I’ve seen Guardians in the other two.” Hanzo then opts to focus more on chewing a mouthful of the banana than talking. 

Jesse props his head up with a grin. “Rito Village is all the way up on the other side of the canyon, about another day’s ride. The temple’s not far from here. You wanna make a change of plans?”

“The temple won’t be going anywhere for a very long time.”

Jesse glances around at the other beds. Some are empty and some have sleeping occupants, and aside from a gangly young man obviously trying and failing to inconspicuously eavesdrop on them, everyone else is ignoring them. “Neither will the other spot.”

Hanzo rolls his eyes and whispers, “Alright, fine. I’m a little more curious about it than the temple right now. Shall we go see the Rito?”

Jesse’s pretty sure he can’t grin any wider. “If we leave soon we can get there before the day’s out. Are you gonna be warm enough until we get there?” He’s seen Hanzo in more than what he has on now, but from what he’s seen most of Hanzo’s clothes are thin and light, suited more for all his climbing and stealth than cold resistance.

Hanzo nods. “I will be fine, I can deal with it. Will you be getting out of bed now?”

Jesse tosses his blankets away. He’s more than ready to hit the road. They prepare quickly, and Hanzo throws a dark glare at the kid who’d been trying to listen in, who nearly falls backward off his bed in response.  

It’s still relatively early when they leave. The air is chilly and only gets chillier as they journey back to the bend and go all the way around it this time. The western side of the canyon rises much higher than the east. As they climb up the wind picks up, the temperature decreases and the road is covered in snow more often than not. They take a break at the Snowfield stable, which is quieter than Serenne, but still more crowded than usual with travelers who are glad to hear the bend is safe. Before they leave again, Hanzo digs through his bags and fishes out a small corked bottle with a bubbly red liquid inside and downs half of it. 

“It’s spicy,” Hanzo says as he offers the elixir to Jesse. “Are you warm enough?”

Jesse waves his hand. “I’m plenty warm enough, I reckon you’ll need the rest of that more than I do.”

Hanzo glances at the layers Jesse wears, most of them thicker than his own, and nods, pressing the cork back into the bottle tightly. His cheeks are considerably more red as they ride out, but it's more to do with the heat elixir than the biting cold. 

Further south, there are the crumbling ruins of one of the only villages in the north. They try to pass through as quietly as they can, but they still have to stop multiple times to beat off thick-skinned lizalfos that fly out at them from under the snow. Hanzo seems to take a particular delight in their collective ability to shoot an arrow faster than the lizards can strike at them. The old road runs alongside a steep ridge and as they come around the southern end of it the wind picks up, kicking snow up at them near constantly. The resulting chill seeps through to Jesse’s skin after only a few minutes of it and he almost reconsiders his response to the elixir, but he decides against asking if there’s more as he watches Hanzo shiver and swallow what’s left of it.

Wind storms aren’t uncommon, but Jesse figures the sudden harshness of it might have something to do with the huge winged creature that he can see high in the sky - he’d been able to see it from a much greater distance, but the closer they get to Rito village, the more it takes shape. It’s a gargantuan bird with a grim purple glow, circling over the Rito home like a dark omen, just like the Divine Beast in the Gerudo Desert. From here, over the whistling wind, he thinks he can make out a long, ugly screech.  

The village isn’t too far from the ridge, though. Built on great pillars in the middle of a lake, Rito Village itself is a welcome sight. There isn’t much for snow on the ground and the wind has calmed down somewhat by the time they reach the stable on the edge of the lake, for which Jesse is grateful. Getting to the village proper involves crossing multiple wooden bridges for anyone without wings, and as sturdy as he knows they are the thought of crossing them in the midst of heavy winds is less than appealing. 

The clerk at the stable looks a little surprised but glad to have horses to board. Between the Divine Beast and the cold, business has been much slower than before. Jesse wonders if the Rito will be as happy to see them. He hasn’t met any for some time or been to the village for even longer.

“I’ve met a few, but I’ve never been here before,” Hanzo says as they cross the first bridge. At the end, a Rito taller than the both of them with deep auburn feathers greets them with a warm voice. Hanzo blows slightly in return.

“It’s not too different from any other village you’ve been to,” Jesse says. “Some would probably love getting to know you if you show off how well you can sing or shoot. You just gotta be careful you don’t fall off a ledge anywhere. Water’s real cold down there.”

Hanzo snorts. “Why does it sound like you’ve fallen off before?”

“Won’t tell if I did or didn’t. I’m afraid I’ll be taking that one to my grave.”

The wood under their boots creaks almost constantly as they cross the second and third bridges. Somehow they only sway an inch or two. Then, as they cross the final bridge, the wind starts to slow. It stops almost completely when they step onto the largest pillar where most of the village is perched. The swaying of the trees is gentle and Jesse can finally stop holding onto the brim of his hat constantly.

“Strange,” Hanzo murmurs, craning his head back to see the Divine Beast high above. 

“Not so bad over here.”

“It’s warmer here, too.” Hanzo stretches his arms up. “Good. My potion’s wearing off. Now, do you know the way around here?”

“It’s a little hard to get lost here.” Jesse gestures upward. There’s a wooden path before them that spirals up the rest of the pillar, from which small circular buildings decorated with colorful drapery jut out. “Only one way to go around, really.”

Hanzo laughs under his breath as he follows the path with his eyes. “Alright then. We came here for warmer clothes. Where will we get those?”

“Right this way.”

Jesse leads him up and around until they reach a small shop with a set of mannequins on display. Pieces of a single thick, warm looking outfit are displayed across all three. The clerk inside doesn’t notice them as they enter, completely engrossed by the strips of fabric they’re sewing together, the thin needle held steady in a feathery hand. Hanzo clears his throat and the Rito’s eyes flick up sharply. They stare at each other, motionless for a moment, and then the clerk flutters off their stool with a glint in their eyes.

“Customers! How good it is to see you, it feels like ages since we’ve seen any!” They look between Hanzo and Jesse and then make a clicking sound with their beak. “Not many have been coming through the wind and the cold,” they say, casting a brief dark look at the sky outside before turning their attention to Hanzo. “But you did, and somehow you did it without any feathers or enough layers. Look at you. Of course, you’re here for something warmer.” They lean forward, blinking somewhat uncertainly. “You are here for clothes, right?”

Hanzo nods once. “Yes.”

“Wonderful, then you are at the right place!” They turn to the mannequins and then stop. After a few seconds, they look from the outfit to Hanzo, then to Jesse. The feathers on their chest puff up as they declare, “This will not fit either of you!”

Jesse agrees. The both of them are far too broad. “Probably not. You have larger sizes of it, though, right?”

“At the moment, no,” the clerk says, then quickly adds, “but I can make larger sizes. Happens a lot, don’t worry. We are always larger or smaller than our fellows, so are you Hylians. All I need are measurements and a couple days to put everything together. Not to forget payment.”

“If we can get up north without freezing to death, then none of those are a problem,” Jesse says. The clerk chirps, but they don’t ask what he and Hanzo want to travel north for.

Hanzo doesn’t exactly look ecstatic when they’re told they’ll need to wait a day or two, but he doesn’t complain as the clerk flits between them and a book on their desk as they jot down measurements. The total cost isn’t cheap either, but it’s not impossible. Jesse’s savings take a dent, and Hanzo spends nearly ten minutes in discussion with the clerk over the worth of the crystal core before they settle on an agreement. 

The day is almost out when they leave the shop. After so long on the road Jesse’s ready for a warm bed, although he doesn’t much fancy the idea of going back across the lake to get to it. 

“What do you say to staying at the inn here?” He asks as he and Hanzo head back down through the village. “The Rito know a thing or two about keeping things nice and warm.”

“The wind won’t be any more pleasant during the night than it was in the day,” Hanzo says. “I’d rather sleep where it’s at least quiet. Mostly quiet, anyway.”

As if on queue, there’s another great screech from above. The wind picks up a little but dies down again shortly after. The chill that it brings stays, though, settling against their faces as the evening progresses.

Like most buildings in the village, the inn doesn’t have solid walls, but most of the openings in it are covered with heavy drapery that keeps the wind out and makes the inside look cozy. There’s warm food and drinks inside, too, and aside from the occasional call from the Divine Beast circling around them the night is more comfortable than almost any other they’ve had on the road. 

\--

They have nothing to do for a couple days but wait for the tailor. Hanzo quickly disappears again in the morning to wander up and down the village, and Jesse doesn’t see him again until after lunch, when he spots a group of Rito gathering below, perching in the trees that surround the central pillar. Hanzo is among them - on the ground, though Jesse doesn’t doubt that he could get in a tree if he wants - with his bow, and all around them are a series of targets and some trees riddled with arrow wounds. 

Fast friends, Jesse thinks as he makes his own way down. From there it snowballs - Hanzo waves him over as soon as he sees Jesse and tells the group that they both have skills with a bow, to which the Rito say they need definite proof. Hanzo agrees immediately with his chin tilted up imperiously, and Jesse finds that he can’t say no in the face of disbelief, and they wind up spending the afternoon in competition with some of the village’s brightest archers. Hanzo eventually does climb into the trees, but they still manage to match each other for points. There’s talk of drinks after, and Jesse can’t say no to those, either.

He sees Hanzo here and there in the shops the next day. They both gather a new stock of arrows and food, and then Hanzo spends the afternoon standing over a cook fire. Jesse has a hunch as to what he’s stirring around in the small pot when he sees the uncorked bottles nearby, but he doesn’t know for certain until Hanzo finds him later that night. 

There’s a large landing platform above the inn, and despite the strong winds, Rito come and go from it all day. Jesse sits down at the edge with a lit cigar and lets his legs dangle, watching his foggy breath and the smoke drift up in the moonlight. The shadow of the Divine Beast passes over him once, quietly, before he hears Hanzo clearing his throat behind him. He turns in time to watch Hanzo kneel next to him, knees only inches from the open edge. 

“This is for later,” he says, passing Jesse a bottle filled with red liquid. It glows just a little when the light hits it, and Jesse can feel the warmth of it through the glass.

“Is it spicy?” Jesse asks, swirling the liquid around a little before holding it securely in his hand. 

“Yes.” Hanzo smiles a little. “The only other recipe I know has a much more foul taste, so be glad the ingredients were being sold here.”

“I’m grateful. It’s mighty kind of you to prepare these.”

“If going around that mountain is anything like getting to the village, we may need them.”

“A storm might set us back, but it’s usually not too bad.”

“You’ve been?”

“Not for a while, but the Hebra range is riddled with trails. Lots to do up there. Although…” Jesse remembers the view of the labyrinth from the pass, from the edge of the great canyon before it. “A blizzard might well be a problem up the other side. Didn’t look so calm there like the other places I’ve been.”

“It would do you well to save it then,” Hanzo agrees.

After that, they sit in silence. Hanzo sits with his hands curled loosely on his legs, eyes nearly closed. If not for the way he turns his head just slightly to follow a flutter of sound behind them Jesse would think he could fall asleep right there, even as the sound from the Divine Beast rings in their ears and echoes all around the lake. For now, though, he simply stares down at the lake, where the wind whips up endless waves, all glittering silver under the moon. His brow furrows a little.

“Something on your mind?” Jesse asks. 

Hanzo’s eyes flick up, but for a moment he says nothing. Then, “Nothing concerning.” It’s soft, but with no room for elaboration.

Jesse nods. There’s no reason to push. “Mind if I say something real quick before I head in? Smoke’s running out, so it’s about time.”

“Go on.”

“Just wanted to thank you for coming out here,” Jesse says, waving at the village behind them. “I don’t think I’ve said that yet. I don’t have a single clue if there’s a Guardian there for you, and I know you’re mostly looking to sate your own curiosity, but still. It’s a dangerous place to be and we’ll probably end up going on foot, but I’m glad you’ve got my back. Glad to have good company, I guess. So thanks.”

Hanzo’s gaze drifts back to the water. “I should thank you for showing me more opportunities as well during our travels.”

“You haven’t found that special core of yours, though.”

“Whereas I literally led you to a legend?” Hanzo asks with a short laugh. “Don’t waste your energy on that concern. As I said, that core is very rare. Besides, if I find that not even a shard of the core survived, that’s still one less Guardian roaming around. There is some good in it. It is just one of many steps to my goal.”

“I suppose that’s true.” Jesse is still wondering - about the Guardians, about the bow even more now - but he lets that thread fall. He’s still as grateful as he’d said, even if, given the chance, he’d still go on his own like he did before. He’s just not the only one who’s seen the labyrinth this time. 

A couple moments later, his last puff of smoke is drifting away, dissolving in the wind. He stands up, brushes himself off and bids Hanzo good night. Hanzo replies with a quiet, “Good night, McCree,” but stays where he is. He looks like he could be cut from stone and moonlight at the edge of the platform, even as Jesse moves out of sight.

It can’t be any less than an hour before Jesse hears him return to the inn.

\--

Layered with feathers from snowbirds and the Rito themselves, the outfits that the tailor dresses them in are warmer than almost anything else Jesse’s worn before. It’s almost too much at first, but after lunch, they start crossing back over the lake and the wind still feels like it’s purposefully trying to blow them into the water, but he can hardly feel the chill under the snowquill armor.  

Hanzo looks glad for it, too. His hood is attached artfully to the feathers pinned in his hair and the thin scarf that was around his neck before has been replaced by a thicker one that covers half his face, leaving only his eye. When he smiles it’s all in the crinkle of his eyes. 

They’re kept warm as they ride back around the ridge and over the hill, to the edge of the Tabantha Snowfield. Snow is falling over the Snowfield stable, but it’s gentle. To the north, the field is a great white expanse slowly fading from sight through the snow. When they arrive, it’s too late to try to cross it and make it around the mountain - Mount Drena, as Jesse had learned in the village - but if they’re lucky, it won’t look much different in the morning. 

They both wake early. Hanzo is out of bed first and leaves for a few moments before returning to tell Jesse that the sky is clear. Jesse knows that it’s probably only temporary and that clouds will probably roll in through the west, but he has a good feeling regardless. He announces to the stable - much quieter now than the last time they came through - that they’re going to find treasure in the north. Not everyone believes him, which he understands seeing as the last guy who tried likely died when the Guardian woke up, but some wish them luck. They leave soon after, and the friendly sounds of the stable steadily fade away behind them, muffled by the sound of their steps in the snow.

It’s quiet for a while, nothing but their steps and the rustling of their clothes to break the silence. Occasionally, something pops out of the snow and skitters away from them with great speed. A fox, or even a fat white quail. Sometimes something bigger bursts to the surface toward them - a lizalfos jumping at the chance for a big enough meal. Hanzo is quick enough to put an arrow in a couple skulls, but more often than not Jesse finds it easier to draw the sword again. 

It’s at least a couple hours of following the thin lines of trees along the base of Mount Drena before they come across anything other than a lizard, a fox, or a great wandering moose. Jesse’s sure the morning isn’t out yet, even though his prediction was true and clouds had rolled in. Snow doesn’t fall, though. Instead, a heavy looking bokoblin comes crashing out of one of the trees ahead of them, spots them, and then scurries away as quickly as it can through snow that reaches its thighs. Jesse doesn’t see the horn on its side until the thing is already ready to sound it, and before Hanzo can lodge an arrow in its head the horn blows for a solid two seconds before cutting off. 

Hanzo curses under his breath. “It’s too quiet here, the alarm might have reached someone.”

The sound of another horn echoes back to them, and it doesn’t seem like the sound traveled from very far away.

“On the bright side, the snow’s a little deep for them, don’t you think?” Jesse says as they pass by the body, pausing while Hanzo yanks his arrow out. “We’re not the only ones moving slow. Just leaves their numbers, so keep your eyes peeled.”

There’s very little cover even in the tree line, so when they step out of it the den dug into the mountain becomes very obvious, mostly because there are two flimsy looking watchtowers outside of it. The wind has started to blow around them but Hanzo still manages to take out one of the watchers before the other starts shrieking and a half dozen more rush out from behind the tarp over the entrance of the cave. They’re a thick-skinned lot, built for the climate, but still relatively easy to handle. The wind bothers Jesse and Hanzo more than the monsters do, nipping at their faces and throwing off Hanzo’s arrows. 

But the cave is empty afterward, offering a place to rest out of the weather. It stinks to hell and back, but a small fire lit inside makes it blissfully warm, so Jesse accepts the trade-off. By the time they’re fed and ready to go the wind has calmed down and a thin layer of snow has blanketed the swathes of red and black. 

They continue north, keeping to the feeble cover of the trees when they can, although they become more and more sparse. The snow falls gently at first, flakes barely collecting on Jesse’s shoulder before a gust of wind blows them away. Then it gets heavier, a little harder to see through here and there, and when they finally reach the northern edges of the mountainside the snow and wind are only looking to get harsher.

Beside him, Hanzo tugs insistently at Jesse’s shoulder. 

“I know,” Jesse says, speaking over the wind. “This might not be something we wanna walk through.” There are a few outcroppings rising above the snow around them, but nothing that would shield them for very long in a storm.

Hanzo shakes his head quickly and tugs his arm again. His voice is muffled almost to the point of incoherence, but his pointing gesture is clear enough. “Not that, although I agree. Look.”

Jesse squints in the direction that Hanzo points, surveying the area again. Something moves slowly around one of the outcroppings, and as soon as he makes out the shape Jesse regrets raising his voice at all. For a split second his knees are locked, but then instinct tells him to duck and cover and he goes. Hanzo follows him and they both scramble to hide a low jut of stone. Neither of them is very interested in seeing more than a glimpse of the massive lynel nearby, hidden so well from them in the snow with its white mane and fur. 

“So, I don’t suppose you have a way of dealing with those fellows, do you?” Jesse asks, hardly daring for more than a whisper.

Hanzo pulls his scarf down now that they’re out of the wind for a moment. “No, not really. Even on a clear day, I would much rather steer very clear of a lynel than try to defeat it. The reward usually isn’t worth the risk.”

“Could say the same about Guardians.”

Hanzo gives him a sharp look. “I have a tried and true method of dealing with them safely. Everything about a Guardian is calculable. Besides...” He peeks around the rock at their backs and sighs. “That is a white lynel. I’ve only ever  _ seen _ one once before. And a storm is coming, we can’t stay here.”

“But if it’s still coming up around this side then it’s gonna see us if we make a break for it. Don’t lynels have supernatural senses?”

“Debatable, considering it didn’t hear you a moment ago.”

“Hey, it’s pretty windy here.” Jesse risks a peek of his own and sinks back immediately. “Definitely hasn’t turned back around yet.”

“There’s a chance we can wait it out back in the cave.”

“It’s gonna see us if we go now,” Jesse reminds him.

“If we don’t move soon the blizzard will catch us instead. It might not be able to see us then, but we won’t be able to see anything at all. We have to  _ go _ .” 

Jesse’s well aware of what the blizzard will do to their visibility. He takes another quick peek. The wind presses a warning to his bones. “Alright, then here’s the plan: as soon as it turns around again, we get the hell out of here. We come back when this blows over and hopefully, it will have moved on.”

Hanzo looks apprehensive at the last point but doesn’t press it. He pulls his scarf back up and adjusts his hood before turning around and looking carefully over their cover. For a couple moments, he simply glares in the lynel’s direction, as if the force of his expression could make it turn around. Then he nudges Jesse to his feet. “Go, _ go _ .”

Jesse goes. The wind is at his back now, urging him along. Hanzo is right in front of him, and for a moment they’re in the clear. The cave isn’t far. Jesse knows they can make it even if the blizzard comes down fully before they reach it.

The sound of the lynel’s roar behind them shakes the very air around them. Jesse, against his better judgment, looks over his shoulder just in time to see the lynel pull a gigantic bow from its back. The arrow that it draws back shines with white light - an ice arrow. 

“Go, just keep going!” Hanzo shouts, their efforts to keep quiet useless now. 

The lynel fires and Jesse drags Hanzo off course before the arrow can land - even through the wind and snow, the lynel’s aim had been exact, and it strikes down almost directly on their original path and a wave of frozen air and shards of ice nips their heels. Jesse looks back again, trying to see when it’ll fire again, but what he finds instead is much more dismaying. The bow is away, apparently a tactic not worth trying again. Instead, the lynel is charging. 

“Just can’t leave us alone, can you?” Jesse says through his teeth, jaw impossibly tight. He pushes Hanzo away from him, ignoring the indignant response as the earth under their feet begins to rumble. “We gotta at least try to break up its focus!”

“We’ve  _ already _ trespassed-”

Jesse can’t catch anymore before he’s suddenly flying through the air. There’s nothing but the wind around him for a second before he hits the ground again, but even then he can’t say for the life of him which way is up or down. His whole body throbs now from the force that had come down on his back; all he can see is white and all he can hear is a dull ringing and the howling of the wind. Distantly, he realizes that he just got charged by a white lynel, which is just about one of the worst things to be charged by. 

Distantly, he thinks he hears shouting.

The seconds seem to take an eternity to pass. Then they all catch up. He gasps, finally finding his breath as he blinks snow out of his eyes. He’s half buried, but he can’t find the strength in his arms to brush any of it away. He hardly manages to turn his head to find the sky - and even then it’s blotted out by the massive lynel standing at its full height before him.

Distantly, he thinks that going out like this ain’t surprising at all. 

_ “You’re not dead, kid.” _

Jesse’s too stunned to move out of the way as the Lynel draws one of the largest, most vicious axes he’s ever seen. The oncoming storm has turned the daylight dim and makes the weapon shine dull, but its edge looks no less sharp. He blinks as he watches the lynel roar again and raise the axe over its head - and then it all disintegrates into blue dust without a sound. 

Even as the world starts coming back and he regains the feeling in his limbs, Jesse isn’t sure if he can move. He knows he must, though. Snow is still falling on him. The white noise is fading and being replaced by the wind in his ears and a voice. He sits up groggily. The field in front of him is empty. The lynel is gone entirely, even its weapons turned to nothing and blown away, leaving nothing but trenches in the snow. 

Hanzo drops down next to him with wide eyes and it takes a few seconds for it to register in Jesse’s mind that he’s asking if Jesse is okay.

Jesse has to search for his voice. “Did you just - shit - did you know-”

Hanzo shakes his head. “I shot the damn thing and it didn’t even react. The ancient arrow was all I had left to try, I didn’t think that it would - nevermind that, get up.”

“Right, right.”

Hanzo looks at him expectantly and then growls. Jesse has half a mind to remind him that he got flung through the air by a charging lynel not two minutes ago but is quickly distracted when Hanzo pulls a resistance elixir from his coat, pulls the cork off with his teeth and then presses it to Jesse’s mouth. Some slips out from the corners of Jesse’s lips, but he manages to swallow as much as he can before Hanzo takes it back. Warmth spreads almost immediately from the pit of Jesse’s stomach to his face and the tips of his fingers and toes. With it is a little more feeling and a few more muscles that he remembers having. Hanzo spits the cork out and drinks the rest in one go, and then hoists Jesse out of the snow.

“Let’s go or we’ll be lost in this storm. It isn’t far.”

He has to lean on Hanzo for a few moments, letting him guide them back to the cave, although he’s not entirely sure how they get there. The blizzard really is on them and it all but blinds him. The wind, thankfully, is still at their backs. 

The entrance of the cave is somewhat buried by the time they find it. Hanzo pulls him inside, where the only light is the nearly dead pile of embers near the back. Hanzo ignores it at first as he lets Jesse sit down against the wall near the pit and then goes to line the bottom of the tarp still hanging over the entrance with heavy stones, blocking out as much of the blizzard as he can.

A few minutes later, the fire is lit again and Jesse feels more or less like himself again. The only downside of it is that while the elixir helped with his chill and his senses, now he can really feel the bruise that has formed already on his back. He rolls his shoulders and regrets it. Hanzo watches him grimace and then digs through his pack. 

“Drink this.” He holds out a small bottle that’s less than half full of a pale red liquid, a shade similar to but not quite the same as their elixirs. 

“What’s this?” Jesse asks as he swishes the bottle around in his hand. He thinks he already knows, but the bottle is unmarked and it’s been a bit since he’s seen some fairy tonic.

“A tonic. It won’t heal you up completely but it will help.”

“Doesn’t look like there’s much left. Are you sure?”

“A white-maned lynel charged you,” Hanzo answers dryly. “Allow me to be generous.” 

That’s all Jesse needs. He braces himself and then drinks the tonic, hardly tasting it. He feels nothing for a few seconds, and then the pain across his back intensifies. He hisses and leans forward, riding it out until the pain fades to more of an ache than a throb. Now when he stretches his muscles pull a little uncomfortably but he doesn’t feel like anything’s possibly broken anymore. 

“Thanks for that,” Jesse says. “For all the rest too. I mean - damn, I don’t know how but you did that lynel in better than I thought it was possible to do something in.”

“I didn’t know it would happen like that,” Hanzo says quietly. “I’d never used the arrows on anything actually alive. But when a normal arrow did nothing I saw no other option. We could very well have both died otherwise.”

“Wouldn’t have been the first time someone like me went down for something foolish.”

“That may be true, but I wasn’t going to simply run away.”

“I’m grateful you didn’t, you saved my ass again. Don’t suppose there’s any chance of me getting to even the score anytime soon?”

Hanzo looks at him over the fire with a smirk across his lips.

“Don’t answer that,” Jesse says quickly. “There’s sure to be something round the other side of the mountain. I’ll let the chance come to me.”

At that, Hanzo’s face falls and he breathes a short sigh through his nose. “I’m not so sure that we  _ should _ continue.”

For a moment the only sound between them is the crackling of the fire.

“How do you mean?” Jesse asks, although it isn’t really a question. The answer is already rather obvious. “Don’t answer that either. We are so close to the labyrinth, I’m not just gonna turn around and walk away from it.”

“What if this storm persists? Shelter like this won’t be available at every turn. Not to mention how unlikely it is that a single lynel is the only thing that calls the passage ahead home.”

Jesse shakes his head. “I ain’t worried about those. Like I’ve said, I wouldn’t find much treasure if I was scared of a little danger.”

Hanzo frowns at him, his brow furrowing tightly. “A little? We were nearly dead out of sheer foolishness less than an hour ago, McCree. Have you tied so little worth to your life?”

“I’d say it’d be worth a lot more if I get into that labyrinth.”

“ _ If _ . There’s no guarantee that there’s anything there that’s worth it at all.”

“There never is. When you’re looking for legends, all you get to go on for sure is your gut - and mine’s saying this ain’t the time to walk away.”

“That’s fool’s talk,” Hanzo says flatly, unconvinced. 

Jesse shrugs. “So’s a lot of other talk. Hasn’t stopped me yet. And if it does, well, that’ll be a lesson someone else has the pleasure to learn.”

There is confusion written clear in Hanzo’s expression, in the tilt of his head and the unspoken question on his parted lips. Eventually, he asks, “Are legends all you have to go back to?”

Jesse’s not sure exactly where the question pulls his laugh from. Some deeper part of him than just his gut. Right out from his bones, maybe. “Maybe it is. Is that so surprising? Look around us. The Calamity hit, and for a lot of folks it never went. Legends are all we got, even if they ain’t coming back around either.”

Hanzo looks away, down to the fire. So close to the flames, his face is cast with sharp shadows. His expression, still drawn down, is several more times severe. Jesse imagines his own is similar. Hanzo sighs softly. “Perhaps you’re right. I’ve certainly had little reason to think otherwise myself. However… Our arrangement hinges on the guarantee that we both benefit-”

“And you’re not gonna risk your life for something that ain’t guaranteed,” Jesse finishes. Hanzo looks apologetic. “Hey, I get it. I did say we’d both get what we wanted working together. I can’t say for certain if there’s any reward better than the risk.”

“You are still set on going, though.”

“Yep. That last bit applies to most things I’ve done, and I don’t got anything worse right now than a great big bruise.” Jesse offers him a smile. “Maybe I haven’t made all the greatest decisions but I’ve always had a knack for getting myself out of trouble, so once this storm lets up I intend to see what the hand I got dealt really looks like.”

“You will be on your own. It will be goodbye for now.”

“For now, huh?”

“I think if you return from this, I will honor our agreement about the temple. I don’t see why not if luck is indeed on your side. If not,” Hanzo shugs, “then I’ll see to it myself. How does that sound to you?”

All in all, a little better than what Jesse had expected. He shuffles closer to Hanzo and stretches his hand out. “Sounds like a deal to me.”

There’s a chill in his fingers, only just warmed by the heat of the fire, but Hanzo’s shake is as firm as it was the first time. After, they shift closer again as the wind blows hard as ever, creating an easy draft. The effects of the elixir wear off, but the fire remains strong enough on its own.

Maybe a couple hours pass, maybe more, before Jesse thinks that the wind has been quiet for long enough to warrant a peek outside. A drift is crawling up the heavy tarp, but overhead he finds that the heaviest clouds have moved on. A spot of blue here, a shaft of light there. The field looks almost pristine again.

Hanzo joins him before long. He surveys the area around the cave, then looks up at Jesse. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry. It may look calm now, but I’m still leaving you here.”

“Hey, as long as you stick with the new deal, I got no hard feelings. Don’t forget to wait for me, right?”

Hanzo nods. “Of course. I enjoyed our time together, so I don’t feel so inclined to lie to you.”

Jesse has to agree. He can’t quite say for certain when the last time he shared camp with the same person for more than a couple nights in a row was, or the last time he’d been in the company of someone for so long without keeping an eye out for when they might try to run off with everything they could carry and leave him stranded. Hanzo’s been good company; often quiet, but hardly one to turn down a drink, and a good enough joke drew warm laughter from him even during the nights where they hadn’t quite made it to the safety of a stable. Not to mention his skill and confidence overall.

Jesse looks forward to seeing him again.

He grins, vowing silently to himself that once he’s made his way around Drena and back he’ll be sure to describe to Hanzo everything he’d missed.

“Good luck, McCree,” Hanzo says, finally drawing his scarf up over his mouth and muffling the rest of his words. “Try not to get yourself killed up there.” 

“Keep yourself safe, friend,” Jesse replies, stepping out of the way. Hanzo pauses, giving him a curious look before he passes by. He steps easily over the snow drift, gives the northern field a brief glance, and then walks away. Jesse waits until to sound of Hanzo’s boots in the snow fades to nearly nothing before he adjusts his own scarf, making sure it’s secure around his neck and face, and walks the other way once more.

The snow isn’t much deeper than it had been before. It’s slightly stiff on the surface, holding just barely under his footsteps before breaking and letting his boots fall through. He’s almost caught in the rhythm of it, each  _ step-crunch, step-crunch _ . But he’s alone again, no one to share vigilance with. The field looks pristine, but he knows he isn’t the only creature stepping out of the burrows. As he’d done in the desert, he keeps a sharp eye out for the tricky lizalfos whose hiding places were only made better with the fresh snow. 

The sky continues to clear bit by bit as he returns to the area where the lynel had been making its rounds. Dents in the snowfield where it had charged are still evident. Jesse passes it quietly. He can see Hyrule’s northernmost border again, another sudden drop into nothing. He won’t stop to admire it this time, though.

The sound of muffled shuffling is all the warning he has before a lizalfos clutching an icy spear leaps into the air nearby - it’s all the warning he needs in the silence around him. The snow slows him down some, but he manages to turn quickly enough to deflect the incoming blow. It takes a few tries after that to get a strike of his own in at it. Its movements are practically unhindered and it dances around him a few times, bounding in and out of his range before he manages to time it just right. 

He’s finishing it off when he notices something else moving from the corner of his eye. He deals one last blow and then whirls around, ready to face another - but then stops. The movement he’d spotted is from a greater distance than he’d thought and it isn’t very lizard-like. Not very quick but not slow either, a bulky figure in soft brown and white following his trail with steady steps. 

It takes several minutes for Hanzo to catch up properly. In that time a smile spreads across Jesse’s face, reaching his eyes before he realizes it’s there at all. Finally, Hanzo reaches the circle of disturbed, bloody snow around Jesse and the dead lizalfos and stares at Jesse expectantly. The downward slope of his shoulders is visible even under his layers.

Jesse pulls his scarf down, baring his grin to the cold. “I thought you weren’t coming along?”

Hanzo gives an exaggerated shrug. “Well, I’m here now.”

“Couldn’t drop the chance after all, huh?”

“It would seem that way.” Jesse thinks the slant of his eyes might be from a smile. He chuckles.

“Well, I’m happy to have you along again, partner.”

“I’m not so sure yet that my decision was sound, but we’ll just have to see what’s in store. Shall we keep going?” Hanzo gestures at the tracks around them. “How am I supposed to continue exploiting your progress if you aren’t making any headway?”

“Ha! Is that how it is now? Alright, alright, let’s get moving. I think it’s only fair that you share some of the work, though.”

There’s a low hum from under Hanzo’s scarf, but he nods, and they continue on together again. 

The wind changes direction with them as they approach the border, blowing against their backs as they journey east now. Clouds return overhead, blotting out the sky again, but they’re thin and light, hardly promising anything. It’s only in the distance that they seem to get heavy again, and there Jesse hardly worries about them over what he can see below them.

It’s a low wall at first, partially hidden by Mt. Drena rising up next to them, and looking like the sharp corner of an arrow pointing back at them. With nothing to block it completely from sight, Jesse has the pleasure of watching it grow as they approach. Taller and taller with each passing moment, a great monument cloaking in ice. The wind howls in his ears, pushing against his back and guiding both of them toward a narrow gateway opening the labyrinth where the walls would join to form a corner. The only entrance to the maze.

A set of low stone steps lead them to a small platform at the gateway. As they set foot at the top, the wind slows almost instantly to a gentle breeze. The blowing snow around them no longer bites at their skin. Standing before it now, Jesse feels the same awed silence he’d felt before. 

It’s the work of a master and a legend. A dream become reality.

His neck starts to ache as he traces the patterns carved into the walls, but he wants the moment to last a little longer. The wind is a soft sigh pressing against his back again, drawing him in. Like the labyrinth itself is breathing as deeply as he is. 

Hanzo moves in front of him, stands just inside the gate. He’s dwarfed by the walls, even by the single passage inside alone. He turns to Jesse. “Are you coming?”

Jesse grins. “Of course. Let’s go look for treasure.”

They step into the labyrinth with a breath of wind whispering by their ears. The passage leads them straight in, never branching off until the very end, where more stairs lead to a platform that’s almost completely clear of snow. The reason for the strange lack is immediately apparent - stairs drop back down on the left and right, but the left passage is completely blocked by heavy pillars and thick pools of murky black malice. It bubbles and oozes, and now Jesse can feel a strange heat emanating from it. It chokes the air around it. 

“Looks like we’re not going that way,” he murmurs. Hanzo hums in agreement. There’s no moving forward, either. Thick metal bars block the way, and shrouded in the darkness behind them is what looks to be a shrine. It’s truly another test.

“There’s no difficulty in choices here,” Hanzo says, “but I wonder what waits for us deeper inside. I don’t know the shape of it this time.”

“Then I hope you’ve got a good memory.”

“I’ve been told it’s exceptional. Let’s go.”

A quick investigation of their possible routes after their turn down the stairs on the right reveals that there’s no getting around the massive blockage on the left. The malice seems to extend almost all the way around the walls housing the shrine, leaving them with two choices, one almost immediately after the first turn, and one deeper in. Jesse’s own reluctance to leave any stone unturned makes it an easy decision. Wherever the second path goes, he imagines they’ll get around to it.

_ Right. _

Aside from the one that led them inside, there don’t seem to be any long corridors here, and no easy turns that they can see from far away. It’s all winding paths and dead ends, forcing Jesse to whisper their steps under his breath as they turn, turn, and then backtrack. Their boots in the thin, hard snow on the ground is the only other sound for some time.

_ Left, right, left, right-  _

His focus is broken briefly when they reach another dead end, but before he can turn on his heel he spots something in the drift rising in one of the corners. Something buried by snow, but glowing in the dimness. He brushes the snow away until he uncovers a small collection of stones, all about half the size of his fist but light and somewhat translucent. They all glow a soft blue, although they darken somewhat when he holds them to what light manages to make it down here from the top of the walls. 

Hanzo holds his satchel open, offering an easy place to store them until later, and they move on.

_ Right, left, left-  _

Jesse has to amend his previous thought; eventually, they come to a long corridor that runs into a tunnel to the left, and to another dead end at the top of a wide set of stairs on the right. Straight ahead, more twists and turns. Curiously, both the tunnel and the dead end are lit with warm light by small lanterns atop sturdy posts. Jesse climbs the stairs carefully to get a closer look at one while Hanzo wanders into the tunnel. A trio of lanterns surrounds a short, partially frozen chest that Jesse is pleased to see, although he allows himself to be distracted for a moment by the golden glow.

He can’t see a fire inside the glass. It’s odd, but somehow he’s not sure if that should be surprising. With a place such as this, built ages ago, probably when Hyrule had access to the kind of technologies he could only dream about - maybe a few wandering Guardians aren’t the only things left over. He wonders absentmindedly if they need to be connected to the posts to work.

Hanzo is still scouting out the tunnel when Jesse turns his attention to the chest. By the time he hears Hanzo calling out behind him, reporting nothing but a slightly warmer temperature and dead ends, he’s chipped away enough of the ice over it to get a look inside. There’s a short sword, but its sheath is damaged and before he even gets the blade halfway out of it he knows it’s far too rusted to be of any interest. Better than that, though, is the bundle of arrows underneath. The tips are shaped like three pointed flakes of snow and glow a pale blue. In a warmer climate, he’d probably be able to feel a chill in the air around them. 

“Enchanted arrows,” he says, turn to show Hanzo the ice arrows in his hands. Hanzo gives them an appraising look and then nods.

“They’re in good condition, too. Will you sell them?”

Jesse shrugs as he carefully stores them away. “Not sure yet. You never know when they’ll come in handy.”

Snow starts to fall around them softly, covering their tracks lightly, so Hanzo carefully recounts their path before they return to the twisting paths.

_ Left, right - a path that leads them back to the start, just as he’d thought - right, left, right-  _

After almost getting turned around a couple times they find another cache of stones. Most are luminous, a couple are glimmering opals. Jesse’s attention is caught pretty quickly though by the nearby torch - an actual torch this time, fire on crooked wood, hidden from the wind by the towering walls and the tight corner around it. 

“We’re not alone,” Hanzo says quietly, eyes on the ground. The snow is packed already under their boots, tracks almost indiscernible. Jesse’s back twinges, but he shrugs the feeling away and pulls his scarf down.

“We’ll go carefully,” he whispers. “See what it is we’ve got to deal with.”

It doesn’t take long to figure it out. They’ve hardly turned around and taken three steps before they’re ducking back. Up ahead, a tall lizalfos with mottled red and black skin wanders into sight, head tilting from side to side so it can peer down the corridor with beady eyes. Jesse isn’t surprised. All the winding paths and tunnels make for some nice cover from the elements, making this a fine place for the creatures to hide away in. There must be several here.

When the monster disappears again, Hanzo creeps ahead to the corner and peeks around it. He returns quickly, his steps silent. “There are four that I could see. The area opens up, but there are more paths that I can’t see into.”

“Probably a couple more wandering around somewhere.” Jesse crosses his arms, thinking. The lizards are quick and know these halls, but they can probably handle them. And chances are they’re guarding something. “Why don’t we make a wager?”

One of Hanzo’s eyebrows quirks up, interested. “What sort of wager?”

“To see who can take the most out.”

“There aren’t that many there,” Hanzo points out.

“You saying you don’t think you’re quick enough?”

Jesse doesn’t need to see Hanzo’s entire face to know what his expression has shifted to. He squints at Jesse, and his smirk is practically audible. “I think it will be easy to show you the error in your judgment. I assume the winner will see more of the treasure?”

“Loser buys all the drinks when we get back to a bar.”

Hanzo considers for about two seconds. “Fair enough. You’d better hope they don’t have a large supply of sake.”

Jesse nearly laughs but remembers just in time that he needs to keep his voice down. Instead, he lets out an incredibly undignified snort and follows Hanzo out of their hiding place. 

The lizalfos they’d seen earlier wanders back into the corridor before they reach the end of it. It spots them almost immediately and reaches for the horn dangling at its side, but Hanzo puts an arrow through its skull before it can do anything else. That alone is enough of a warning for the others nearby, though. A horn blows from somewhere around the corner and it echoes through the corridors for what must be a great distance. Deeper into the labyrinth, another horn answers.

Hanzo looks unconcerned. His eyes narrow in intense concentration as they turn the corner into a wide courtyard. Two more lizalfos are already advancing on them, and behind them is another icy skinned one wielding a bow. Hanzo sets his sights on it, but before he can draw an arrow back, one of the black lizalfos leaps at him with its spear. The spear ends up stuck into the ground after Hanzo darts out of the way, and Jesse steals the chance to run it through before it can recover. One for one. 

Not for long, though. An arrow goes whistling by Jesse’s ear. Dodging it nearly sends him straight into the second monster nearby, one with a dangerous spiked shield. Dancing with it is a test of perfectly timed parries and dodges as he tries to get around its shield and avoid getting shot at the same time. The arrows only stop when Hanzo has put a few of his own through his opponent’s chest.

Should have come up with conditions for a tie, Jesse thinks when he finally gets an opening. Hanzo nearly lodges an arrow into the last lizalfos’ shoulder, but it lifts its shield to block the shot, leaving Jesse in a convenient place to strike on its other side. It shrieks loud enough in his ear the set a high pitched ringing in it, and the sound dwindles quickly to a bloody gurgle. 

It isn’t quite enough to cover the  _ thump _ he hears behind him, and the distinct sound of someone getting the air knocked out of their lungs. Jesse turns before he’s even pulled his sword all the way free to see a fifth lizalfos standing over Hanzo, one clawed foot pressed heavily on Hanzo’s hand as he reached to reclaim his bow, and both arms raising a spear over his body.

For a split second, Jesse thinks he sees a backdrop of burning trees. An old marker on so many maps, but ultimately a place no one stayed long enough in to help, buried under sand carried from the desert and ashy bones. 

Jesse lunges, taking the lizalfos to the ground with a flying tackle. They recover quickly, but instead of trying to throw Jesse off, the lizalfos opens its mouth, and Jesse doesn’t wait to see if it wants to lash out with its tongue or spit up burning water in his face. He clamps its mouth shut with both hands and slams its head into the ground, twice for good measure. It’s too stunned then to stop him from grabbing his sword again and finishing it off. It struggles against him only briefly, already little more than a pile of bones soon to be buried in snow and ice.

“It seems we’re three to two,” Hanzo says behind him, “favor you.”

Jesse turns. Hanzo is sitting up on the ground, his bow pulled into his lap. His scarf is pulled down under his chin, tinged with red. He sniffles and gingerly presses his fingers over his nose. It’s bloody but apparently unbroken. The hand that had been stepped on rests over his bow. 

“How’s your hand?” Jesse asks after a moment.

Hanzo raises it and makes a twisting motion. He grimaces but doesn’t give any other indication that he’s in much pain. “Bruised and aching, but fine other than that. I’ll survive. I wasn’t watching my back, I apologize for that. Were you injured at all?”

Jesse stands up and looks down at himself. Other than some bruising of his own, he feels fine. He says as much and then starts looking in his pouches for something to clean up the blood that has dripped to Hanzo’s chin. He crouches next to Hanzo and offers a small cloth. Hanzo accepts it quietly. “Looks like I managed to even us out a little bit, finally.”

“It seems you did,” Hanzo says as he wipes the blood off his face. “Favour me in that regard still, although you did also win the wager. Does the stable’s single shelf count as a bar?”

Jesse chuckles. “Am I allowed to amend the conditions for a bar found in actual civilization?”

Hanzo hums thoughtfully. “I will allow it, but only on account of you having saved me from grievous injury at best and a shameful death at worst.” He hands the cloth back to Jesse, who folds it back into the pouch. He doesn’t mind that a few new stains will be added to the ones already in it.

“I’m glad you’re alright. You already came out here against your judgment, last thing I’d want is for that to get you killed.”

“The mistake would only be mine,” Hanzo reminds him. He gives Jesse a curious look, one that Jesse can’t properly decipher before he schools it again. “But thank you for your concern. Shall we see if there’s anything here worth taking?”

“That’s what we’re here for, after all.” Jesse stands and pulls Hanzo to his feet. Hanzo takes a few seconds to steady himself, and then they move further into the courtyard. It’s empty now, not a sound to be made.

There’s a modest collection of gear lining the platform at the top of the stairs where the bow-wielding lizalfos now lies dead. Most of it is crude, fashioned by the monsters themselves, and not something Jesse is very inclined to carry out. Hidden among the weapons though, is a long case kept shut with thick clasps. There is a symbol stamped on it, worn away almost completely. Hanzo runs his fingers over it lightly, as if he could make it more legible.

And maybe he did, somehow, because then he says, “I think I know what this is.” He flips the clasps and opens the case so they can look inside.

The sword they find is much larger than what Jesse’s used to wielding, two-handed and double-edged. There’s another symbol sculpted into its hilt and its scabbard, and Jesse recognizes it this time. The Sheikah symbol marks the weapon easily as one of the rarest he’s seen. The tribe’s presence is almost nonexistent outside of Necluda, and their weapons are few and far between even there. Most of the knowledge to make them had been swept away and shunned years before Jesse had even been born. 

“This would be worth quite a sum to the right people,” Hanzo says. 

“No kidding.” Jesse lifts it up. It’s much lighter than he thought it would be. “Do you want to carry it or should I?”

“You,” Hanzo says without a second to lose. “You’re taller.”

“Pfft. I guess that decides it then.”

It takes a few minutes, but they manage to get the sword strapped to Jesse’s back along with his pack and bow. It’s noticeably heavier, but when he says that it isn’t as bad as he thought, Hanzo tells him that the Sheikah’s ability to create lightweight equipment apparently managed to survive over time better than the majority of their other creations. 

They’re ready to go again, although when they reach the bottom of the stairs Hanzo pauses again.

“Oh,” he says, head tilted. “I thought that was a torch.”

In the far wall of the courtyard is an alcove, and one corner of it is lit red and orange. From the corner of Jesse’s eye, it could have been a torch, if torches were typically placed on the ground. Up close, Hanzo picks it up gingerly and Jesse recognizes it as another enchanted weapon.

“I usually only see these rods in the hands of a wizzrobe,” Hanzo says, pleased. The meteor rod glows a little brighter in his hands, but he doesn’t wave it. He only holds it between them, letting the warmth of the magical flame waft over their faces. “This should come in handy while we’re here.”

“I’m liking the better odds of us not freezing,” Jesse agrees. 

The rod is tucked carefully at Hanzo’s side, and then they finally leave the courtyard.

_ Left, right, left - a final lizalfos, easily passed - right, left, right-  _

There’s another small courtyard with a long tunnel delving to the center of the labyrinth, a mirror of the first they’d found. Hanzo goes down the tunnel again, but hardly makes it to the end before he stops for a moment, then comes back, shaking his head. 

“There’s malice down there, blocking everything. If there’s anything to find, it probably isn’t worth the hassle.” 

Jesse shrugs. “Then it’s good that we’ve already found some good things. We’ll just ignore it and have a look somewhere else.”

Another set of stairs, another trio of flameless lanterns. Hanzo’s the one to spot the bundle of fabric badly hidden behind one of the posts, possibly by one of the lizalfos. It unwinds as soon as Jesse yanks it out from between the post and the wall, causing a small collection of rupees to fall onto the ground at his knees, a single silver rupee surrounded by several red ones. 

He hands a few of the red rupees to Hanzo with a grin. “For the drinks, remember.”

Hanzo gives him an unimpressed look, but with his scarf still tucked under his chin, there’s no masking the twitch of his lips. “How thoughtful.”

_ Left, right, right, left, left- _

Jesse had forgotten about the massive blockage they’d seen when they first entered the labyrinth. He only remembers it when he hears the distinctive sound of thick bubbles popping and low groaning. They’ve been wandering the ancient corridors for some time, too, slowly losing light. Of course they’d be coming back around. 

The path opens up into the great central courtyard again, although he can barely even see where they’d started through the thick pillars of solid malice jutting from the walls. End of the road, time to turn back. He’s about to ask Hanzo if he’s been keeping careful track of their turns as Jesse’s been before he notices the frown on Hanzo’s face.

“Something bothering you?” Jesse asks. Hanzo is silent as he stares across the pool. Jesse follows his line of sight and quickly discovers what had caught Hanzo’s attention.

There’s an eyeball staring at them from the center of the pool of malice, suspended over it between a few of the pillars. Aside from the uncomfortably bright shade of gold that makes up the iris, the eye is made of the same stuff as the goo around it. It stares at them, unblinking, and Hanzo stares right back. 

“That’s one of the creepiest damn things I’ve ever seen,” Jesse says. He moves a couple steps away from Hanzo and the eye blinks once before following him. “Does it do anything other than blink?”

Hanzo stares quietly for a few more seconds. “No,” he says finally. “It seems all it can do is watch.” he draws his bow, wincing as he uses his injured hand to draw an arrow back.

“What are you doing?”

“All it can do is watch,” Hanzo repeats, “but it’s still an agent of the Calamity. I’m killing it.”

Before Jesse can say another word, protest or otherwise, Hanzo fires. The arrow flies directly into the floating pupil and a strange ringing sound echoes throughout the courtyard, a deep wail through Jesse’s own head that he could go years without hearing again, as the eye goes wide and starts to shudder violently. Then, before he knows it, the eyeball and all of the malice around it explodes and turns into a deep purple-black gas. They both just manage to pull their scarves over their mouths again before the cloud reaches them, and even then Jesse can smell the reek of it. Stinging tears fill his eyes as he grabs Hanzo by the shoulder and drags him back into the labyrinth, back around two corners and down the corridor before the air is clear enough. 

They both spend a moment just leaning against the wall, coughing and trying to wave the terrible scent away. Hanzo looks at him almost sheepishly.

“I thought the eye would only be connected to a small fraction,” he says, still taking in deep breaths. “I didn’t think the entire area would go up like that.”

“A little bit of warning would have been nice, too.” Jesse wrinkles his nose; the air around them is clear, but it feels like the acrid scent is stuck in his lungs. “Have you been keeping track of where we went?” 

Hanzo nods. “Of course. But that might not matter, either. Depending on how much of the blockage is gone...”

“We could be right back where we started, no problem at all,” Jesse finishes.

“If enough of it dissolved, yes.”

“Should we go back and check it out?”

“We should wait a few minutes first. It may take some time to blow away. I apologize, by the way. That was… Perhaps not my best decision.”

Jesse forgets what he’d intended to say - maybe a reminder of why they shouldn’t mess with malice - and laughs. It’s the kind of laughter that rises up from his belly, rending his efforts to catch his breath useless. Hanzo watches him, surprised. Jesse can only shake his head and start catching his breath all over again. 

“It didn’t kill us,” he says. “Ain’t our time to fold, that’s what matters.”

“I suppose so,” Hanzo says softly. 

They wait in silence, after. When they decide that they’ve listened to the wind for long enough, they return to the end of the labyrinth. The smell is still there, but most of the malice is not. A few jagged pieces of the pillars remain, and the places where malice had clung are now stained darkly. The walls and the ground that had been covered are cracked and crumbling, aged and eaten away by the goo. The air is clear, though, and the way is free.

There’s something else for their troubles, too. As they survey the courtyard, Jesse spots one last chest in the far corner that had previously been clogged with malice. It’s seen some damage too, hardly strong enough to give any resistance when Jesse uses his boot to open it. There’s another small collection of rupees inside, all in pristine condition compared to the chest and everything around it. One of them is even gold. He flips it to Hanzo.

“For drinks?” Hanzo asks, still catching it deftly in the low light around them. 

“For saving us time, too. And the trouble of remembering exactly where we went.”

Hanzo snorts but doesn’t say anything more until they’re back at the top of the first set of stairs in the labyrinth. The wind still blows steadily down the long corridor toward them. Above, the sky is cloudy and dim. Hours had passed in the labyrinth, and daylight is fading fast. “We’re here late again. Maybe this time we should find shelter inside the maze.”

“What, find the closest dead end with good cover?”

“Would you like to try your luck getting back at night?”

“Not unless you’re aiming to really push your luck today.” Now that they  _ have _ something to come back with, Jesse himself isn’t feeling so inclined. Nobody’s ever a successful treasure hunter if they don’t even manage to do anything with the treasure before getting picked off.

Hanzo shakes his head. “No, that’s enough for now. I think I know a good place, anyway.”

He leads the way back into the maze, not into the first path they’d taken, but down the one that takes them almost straight back to where the ice arrows had been stashed, and into the tunnel. It’s as good enough a spot as any to rest, huddled before one of the ancient lanterns tucked into the dead ends. It’s not quite warm enough to shed any layers, but with blankets unrolled over the both of them and the meteor rod nearby, their corner is almost cozy. Jesse settles in easily enough with Hanzo pressed against his back. 

They’re quiet for a long time, and Jesse feels more than he hears Hanzo take a deep breath. He almost thinks Hanzo is drifting off, but then Hanzo speaks.

“That went surprisingly well,” he murmurs.

“Glad you turned back around?”

Hanzo replies with an exaggerated sigh, as if he can hear Jesse’s smile as well as his smugness. “Yes. But only if we don’t end up getting lost in a storm after all on the way back.”

“We’ll just have to see what it’s like tomorrow.”

Hanzo hums and then falls silent again. Jesse closes his eyes, tries to fall asleep in the middle of a legendary labyrinth, the thought of which almost makes him laugh. Instead, he finds himself asking another question.

“Hey, Hanzo?”

It takes a few seconds for Hanzo to respond with another low hum.

“What made you turn back around?”

Hanzo sniffs. “Didn’t I already say so?”

“Hm, maybe. Don’t think I caught it right, though. You asked me earlier, during the storm, if I had anything other than legends to go back to. To me, it sounded like you did. But you came here instead.”

Silence again. Then, “I have a brother. Younger. He lives in Necluda. I… haven’t seen him in some time. But I would not go so far as to believe that he’s changed so much that he would ever let me live it down if he heard that I turned something like this down. He thinks too much of dreams and legends.”

Jesse chuckles quietly. “Didn’t want to risk facing that disappointment for the rest of your lives?”

“Hm. He surely would have argued against my decision. Arguing with him in person is exhausting enough, I didn’t need to hear it in my own head, too. Does that answer your question?”

“More than. And don’t worry, I got a good feeling about tomorrow. You’ll still have your chance to go back there.”

Hanzo stays quiet this time, leaving Jesse with just his thoughts under the soft gold light of the lantern. 

_ “He thinks too much of dreams and legends.” _

That could be said of a lot of people in Hyrule, these days. He wonders what Hanzo’s brother is like, if by the description he’s anything like Jesse himself, or like the other people Jesse sees so often on the road, looking for nothing in particular, but going wherever the whispers on the wind lead them. He wonders, briefly, why Hanzo would not go back for so long, but the brushes it away. It’s no concern of his, whether or not Hanzo sees what family he has often or not at all. He’s familiar with the feeling, anyway, of going for great stretches of time without the company of someone he trusts more than his own self.

He drifts off slowly, thinking that he can almost feel a heavy hand clapped down on the back of his shoulder. A laugh gets lost in a smoky bar, two drinks on the table.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy HOWDY this took a long time, I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be this long either but here we are, two labyrinths down! I had fun with a lot of these scenes too. You might also be able to look forward to some one-shots of Hanzo's POV of this because I realized about three pages in that his side of this is also very interesting.
> 
> If you're wondering, shooting a lynel with an ancient arrow will result in it turning to dust and you cant get any loot from it :(
> 
> Thanks for reading and all your comments!


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